%0 Journal Article
%T Two new endemic genera and a new species of toad (Anura: Bufonidae) from the Western Ghats of India
%A SD Biju
%A Ines Van Bocxlaer
%A Varad B Giri
%A Simon P Loader
%A Franky Bossuyt
%J BMC Research Notes
%D 2009
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1756-0500-2-241
%X Ansonia ornata G¨šnther, 1876 "1875" is transferred to Ghatophryne gen. nov., a genus of torrentially adapted toads that are endemic to the Western Ghats of India. On the basis of close morphological resemblance and distribution, Ansonia rubigina Pillai and Pattabiraman, 1981 is provisionally transferred to this new genus. The Western Ghats endemic toad Bufo koynayensis Soman, 1963 is transferred to a new genus Xanthophryne gen. nov. Based on molecular and morphological evidence, we additionally describe a new species, Xanthophryne tigerinus sp. nov., from Amboli in the Western Ghats.The descriptions and subsequent taxonomic changes we propose result in three genera of bufonids recognised as being endemic to the Western Ghats (Ghatophryne gen. nov., Xanthophryne gen. nov. and Pedostibes), and one to Sri Lanka (Adenomus). The spatial distribution, and arrangement of these lineages at the base of Adenominae diversification, reflects their Early Neogene isolation in the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka hotspot.Bufonidae are a family of toads with over 500 extant species distributed on most continents. Current opinions on bufonid taxonomy are very divergent, and range from the recognition of multiple genera [1], to favouring a subcosmopolitan genus Bufo with plenty of subgenera [2]. Although the phylogenetic relationships of bufonids have been studied intensively [1,3,4], the evolutionary position of species on the Indian subcontinent had remained unclear. However, recent molecular phylogenetic analyses revealed that these toads belong to a radiation containing distinct ecomorphs in adult and/or larval forms [5]. The early diversification of this clade, for which the name Adenominae is available [6], has been reconstructed as occurring on the Southern parts of the Indian subcontinent. Early diversification of Adenominae, timed at the early Miocene, led to several endemic lineages ("Ansonia" ornata, Pedostibes tuberculosus, the "Bufo" koynayensis group and Adenomus) [5] and to the
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1756-0500/2/241