In a major discovery in wildlife, two new frog species have been spotted for the first time, each from the Eastern Ghats and the Western Ghats.
While one of the frogs discovered from the Eastern Ghats has been named after Odisha’s ancient kingdom ‘Kalinga’, the other has been christened after eminent biologist late K Subrammaniasastri Krishnan for his immense contribution in the field of biological sciences.
The two frog species, Fejervarya Kalinga and Fejervarya Krishnan, discovered by a team of herpetologists of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) and the North Orissa University (NOU), are an indicator of a healthy ecosystem.
The herpetologists claimed that the frogs of the Kalinga species breed only during winter instead of monsoon season.
The Fejervarya Kalinga was first spotted from various areas of the Eastern Ghats by eminent Professor Sushil Kumar Dutta of NOU who was the part of the team of herpetologists. The Fejervarya Krishnan was discovered by the post-doctoral research scholar associated with WII Prudhvi Raj from a locality near Jog Falls in Shivamogga district of the State of Karnataka.
The Fejervarya Kalinga is widely found in the range from the Godavari river basin to the Mahanadi river basin. It is one of the largest of its group and grows up to 6.5 cm while the Krishnan cricket frog grows up to 2 cm in size. The two new species live in agricultural fields, streams, swamps and wetlands. The new species live in perennial hill streams.
They remained unnoticed due to their secret habits and similarities with other similar-looking species of cricket frogs. However, many other species are yet to be discovered from the Eastern and Western Ghats, said Prof Dutta.