New distribution records of two uncommon microhylid frogs, Melanobatrachus indicus Beddome, 1878 and

New distribution points add to our knowledge of species distribution patterns and can have conservation implications for threatened species. In this note, we report an additional distribution point for the rare anuran species—Melanobatrachus indicus and Mysticellus franki—from Nelliyampathy in the southern Western Ghats, the latter of which is recorded from the southern Western Ghats for the first time since its description. 

ISSN 0974-7907 (Online); ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)  Beddome, 1878 or the Galaxy Frog was first described from the Anamalai Hills of Tamil Nadu (Beddome 1878). This southern Western Ghats endemic belonging to the monotypic genus Melanobatrachus is the sole representative of the subfamily Melanobatrachinae (Frost 2023). The IUCN has categorized this species as 'Vulnerable' (IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group 2022), and it has been ranked as a high-priority EDGE species by the Zoological Society of London (Isaac et al. 2012). It is a rarely observed frog and has been reported from select locations in South India by only a handful of researchers since its discovery (Table 1, Figure 1). Another microhylid species Mysticellus franki Garg & Biju 2019, or the Mysterious Narrow-mouthed Frog was described from the Suganthagiri region (11.5386 0 N, 76.0538 0 E, 852 m) of the central Western Ghats in Wayanad district, Kerala. This genus is also monotypic; interestingly, its closest relative is the southeastern Asian genus Micryletta (Garg & Biju 2019). Since its discovery, this little-known frog has not been reported from any other location. In the current note, we report an additional distribution record for these elusive frogs from the southern Western Ghats.

Melanobatrachus indicus
While surveying for skinks and ants around Nelliyampathy Forest Reserve on 16 October 2022, at 1050 h, we encountered two adult individuals [34 mm and 32 mm snout-vent length (SVL)] of M. indicus (Image 1); sex undetermined). The individuals were found inside a patch of secondary evergreen forest around a reclaimed cardamom plantation (10.4730°N, 76.6738°E according to World Geodetic System WGS84; 970 m; Image 3). Both individuals were found under rotten logs along a forest pathway, approximately 10 meters from one another. Except for Nixon & Bhupathy (2007), prior records have found this species closely associated with water bodies (Rajkumar et al. 2021) whereas our location point was 150 m away from a perennial stream. The frogs showed typical external characters such as body J TT slender; dorsal surface granular; ventral smooth; black body with numerous bluish-white spots and scarletorange blotches near the groin, belly, and between forelegs. When handled, the frogs appeared motionless with limbs tucked close to the body, indicating classical defensive behavior while under stress (Kanagavel & Tapley 2015).
On the same day, fieldwork in the vicinity of Kesavanpara (10.5236°N, 76.6708°E according to World Geodetic System WGS84; 950 m) at 1310 h yielded a single adult individual (22 mm SVL) of M. franki (Image 2; sex undetermined) under a medium-sized fallen log. The frog was encountered in a disturbed patch of stunted evergreen forest alongside a trail leading to Kesavanpara viewpoint (Image 4). The individual was identified based on overall coloration and external phenotypic characters mentioned in Garg & Biju (2019). These included lack of webbing between fingers; rudimentary webbing between toes; lateral surfaces from the tip of the snout up to the groin prominently dark blackish-brown; two prominent dark blackish-brown 'false-eye' spots on either side of the groin extending just above the hind

J TT
legs; a thin mid-dorsal line extending from the tip of the snout up to the vent; ventral surfaces of throat, belly, arms, and legs dark with multiple greyish-white blotches and speckles. Other species of anurans recorded in sympatry were Clinotarsus curtipes, Duttaphrynus sp., Raorchestes sp., and frogs of the family Ranixalidae.
The current distribution point for M. indicus is approximately 37 km north-west from its closest reported locality at Valparai, Tamil Nadu State. Most other distribution points for the species occur south of the Palghat gap (PG from here on) (Figure 1), a significant biogeographic barrier for amphibians in the Western Ghats (Biswas & Karanth 2021). Only two distribution locations north of the PG are known for this frog. While Beddome (1880) mentions its occurrence in Walaghát (present day Walakkad, around Silent Valley National Park), Rajkumar et al. (2021) report its presence from Wayanad without any precise locality. These two localities are ca. 80 km and 140 km north of Nelliyampathy, respectively. The distribution of M. franki in Nelliyampathy is also notable for a similar reason. Suganthagiri, the only other known locality for this species in the Wayanad plateau, is ca. 132 km north of Kesavanpara, surmounting the PG. Thus, Nelliyampathy is now the only place south of PG where these two species of anurans occur in sympatry. Further field investigations might also yield these species in sympatry/syntopy in the Wayanad-Walakkad region north of PG. It would be interesting to look at the ecology and genetic structure

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