Chilapata rain-pool frog spotted for the first time from Nepal
NCRC’s team members have recorded a new frog species for Nepal from Morang district and Barandabhar corridor forest, Chitwan, Nepal. The frog known as Chilapata rain-pool frog (Minervarya chilapata), the name Chilapata rain-pool frog has been given to this species because it was described from Chilapata Reserve Forest of West Bengal, India.
Chilapata rain-pool frog from Morang, Nepal. Photo: Bivek Gautam
The physical appearance and characters on the body of the frog with brown backed body with golden whitish mid dorsal line, upper lip of the frog with white line and belly part whitish and side part of body with black stripe made this frog different from other known Minervaryan frogs from Nepal. On closer look, the whitish vocal sac also differed from all other known species. After careful observation, physical and measurement of the body parts and call analysis of the male frogs, it turned to be a new species record for Nepal and confirmed to be Chilapata rain-pool frog. Recently, the observation of this frog has been published in the journal Herpetozoa by the team members Bivek Gautam (BRCS) and Santosh Bhattarai. For full paper, click on the (Link)