A New Species of Frog

• 17 Apr 2023

Recently, Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) scientists have discovered a new species of frog named Amolops siju from the deep interiors of the Siju cave in Meghalaya.

• The ZSI team named the new cascade ranid species Amolops siju after the cave from where this discovery was made.
• The discovery of a new species of frog from a cave is very rare, and the absence of troglobitic or cave-adapted modification in the frog specimens collected from the cave suggests that the Amolops siju species is not a permanent resident of the shelter.
• The cave is known to harbor over 100 species of animals, mostly invertebrates like cave crickets, beetles, earthworms, among others.
• The discovery is the second of its kind in India, the first being the discovery of Micrixalus spelunca in 2014 from a cave in Tamil Nadu.
• The specimens of Amolops siju were collected in January 2020 during a cave expedition by the ZSI team. The team conducted morphological, molecular, and spatial studies to ascertain the specific identity of the frog species and concluded that it was new to science.
• The genus Amolops, to which this species belongs, is one of the largest groups of ranid frogs with over 70 known species distributed across northeast and north India, Nepal, Bhutan, China, through Indochina, to the Malaya Peninsula.
• Interestingly, this is the fourth new species of a cascade frog (Amolops) published by the same team recently. Amolops chanakya, Amolops terraorchis, and Amolops tawang were discovered in Arunachal Pradesh.

Troglobitic refers to organisms that have adapted to living exclusively in caves, with highly specialized features and behaviors that are unique to their cave habitat.