Four new species of burrowing frogs discovered in India

Scientists have described four new species of burrowing frogs in India, adding to the rapidly growing list of new amphibian species that have recently been discovered in the country.

The frogs — which burrow and live underground — belong to the genus Fejervarya, researchers report in a new study published in Zootaxa.

For a long time, scientists believed that the aptly named Rufescent Burrowing Frog (Fejervarya rufescens) was the only frog within the Fejervarya genus to build its home underground. The frog was also considered to be widely distributed in the Western Ghats in India. But its secretive burrowing lifestyle meant that the amphibian rarely surfaced and so was seldom encountered. Consequently, the species remained little studied.-read more