o ff b u r r ow fi n g ff r o g ( A n u r a : D fi c r o g l o s s fi d a e ) ff r om w e s t e r n I n d fi a A n a n d P a d h y e , N e e l e s h D a h a n u k a r , S h a u r fi S u l a k h e , N fi k h fi l D a n d e k a r , S u n fi l L fim a y e & K fi r fi J am d a d e 2 6 J u n e 2 0 1 7 | V o l . 9 | N o . 6 | P p . 1 0 2 8 6 -1 0 2 9 6 1 0 . 1 1 6 0 9 / j o t . 2 8 7 7 . 9 . 6 . 1 0 2 8 6 -1 0 2 9 6 T h r e a t e n e d T a x a T h e J o u r n a l o ff T h r e a t e n e d T a x a fi s d e d fi c a t e d t o b u fi l d fi n g e v fi d e n c e ff o r c o n s e r v a fi o n g l o b a l l y b y p u b l fi s h fi n g p e e r -r e v fi ew e d a r fi c l e s o n l fi n e e v e r y m o n t h a t a r e a s o n a b l y r a p fi d r a t e a t www . t h r e a t e n e d t a x a . o r g. A l l a r fi c l e s p u b l fi s h e d fi n J o T T a r e r e g fi s t e r e d u n d e r C r e a fi v e C omm o n s A t r fi b u fi o n 4 . 0 I n t e r n a fi o n a l L fi c e n s e u n l e s s o t h e rw fi s e m e n fi o n e d . J o T T a l l ow s u n r e s t r fi c t e d u s e o ff a r fi c l e s fi n a n y m e d fi um , r e p r o d u c fi o n , a n d d fi s t r fi b u fi o n b y p r o v fi d fi n g a d e q u a t e c r e d fi t t o t h e a u t h o r s a n d t h e s o u r c e o ff p u b l fi c a fi o n .O P E N A C C E S S P a r t n e r www . t h r e a t e n e d t a x a . o r g I S S N 0 9 7 4 -7 9 0 7 ( O n l fi n e ) | I S S N 0 9 7 4 -7 8 9 3 ( P r fi n t ) B u fi l d fi n g e v fi d e n c e ff o r c o n s e r v a fi o n g l o b a l l y J o u r n a l o ff T h r e a t e n e d T a x a P u b l fi s h e r / H o s t F o r F o c u s , S c o p e , A fim s , P o l fi c fi e s a n d G u fi d e l fi n e s v fi s fi t h t p : / / t h r e a t e n e d t a x a . o r g / A b o u t _ J o T T F o r A r fi c l e S u bm fi s s fi o n G u fi d e l fi n e s v fi s fi t h t p : / / t h r e a t e n e d t a x a . o r g / S u bm fi s s fi o n _ G u fi d e l fi n e s F o r P o l fi c fi e s a g a fi n s t S c fi e n fi fi c M fi s c o n d u c t v fi s fi t h t p : / / t h r e a t e n e d t a x a . o r g / J o T T _ P o l fi c y _ a g a fi n s t _ S c fi e n fi fi c _M fi s c o n d u c t F o r r e p r fi n t s c o n t a c t < fi n ff o@ t h r e a t e n e d t a x a . o r g > Conflict of interest:The authors declare no competing interests. Funding sources had no role in study design, data collection, results interpretation and manuscript writing.Author Contribution: AP, SS, NiD, SL and KJ collected specimens; AP and NeD diagnosed the species; AP, SS, NiD and NeD generated morphometric and genetic data; NeD performed genetic and morphometric analysis; AP and NeD wrote the manuscript with inputs from SL, SS, NiD and KJ. Abstract: Sphaerotheca pashchima, a new species of burrowing frog, is described from western India. It can be diagnosed from all its congeners based on a combination of characters including interorbital width less than upper eyelid width, snout to nostril distance less than half of eye diameter, nostril nearer to snout than to eye, internar...

Species diversity of South Asian burrowing frogs within the genus Sphaerotheca is still obscure because of lack of taxonomic review.  There are taxonomic issues within the genus Sphaerotheca with several names being synonymized to S. breviceps and names, such as S. pluvialis, being available without proper diagnosis. To resolve the taxonomic confusion, we describe and diagnose S. pluvialis by designating a neotype from Carnatic region of southern India, from where the original species was described, and make S. fodiens as its objective synonym.  We designate lectotype of S. breviceps and provide diagnosis for separating the species from its congeners. We clarify the identity of S. dobsonii and resurrect S. swani and S. maskeyi.  Based on morphology we define three groups within genus Sphaerotheca and provide key to the groups and eight valid species in the genus.  We assign genetic barcodes to S. pluvialis, S. dobsonii and S. breviceps.

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A new species belonging to the genus Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 is described from the Rangana Fort mountain range of the northern Western Ghats, Maharashtra, India. A preliminary 16S rRNA phylogeny of Indian Cnemaspis is provided and the phylogenetic position of the new species is established within the goaensis clade. The new species, Cnemaspis ranganaensis sp. nov. can easily be distinguished from all Indian congeners by having 3 or 4 spine-like tubercles on the flanks, conical tubercles absent on flank, dorsal pholidosis heterogeneous, presence of precloacal and femoral pores in males, 8 or 9 poreless scales between femoral and precloacal pores; gular scales flat, smooth; 93–101 paravertebral scales, 59–63 mid-dorsal scales; 93–101 longitudinal scales from mental to cloaca, 30–31 scales across belly; ventral scales smooth, imbricate; tail with small, granular, keeled, pointed, subimbricate scales intermixed with enlarged, strongly keeled, conical tubercles forming whorls; scales on ventral side of tail imbricate, smooth, with three rows of large, slightly elongated median subcaudals. The new species is closely related to C. goaensis, from which it differs by a genetic divergence of 1.9-3.0%. Molecular phylogenetic reconstruction supports the distinctiveness of the new species.

for providing infrastructure facilities. Anushree Jadhav is thankful to Dr. Narahari P. Gramapurohit for encouragement and support.