New Frog Species Discovered in Assam, Named After 'Northeast'

Guwahati, June 12, 2019:

Scientists from Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun and University of Delhi (DU) in collaboration with Researchers from Indonesia and America have discovered a remarkably beautiful new frog belonging genus Micryletta from the Northeastern region of India, primarily Assam.

The new species has been named ‘aishani’, derived from the Sanskrit word ‘aishani’ or aisani meaning Northeast. The study by Abhijit Das (Wildlife Institute of India), Sonali Garg and S D Biju (DU), Amir Hamidy (Indonesian Institute of Sciences), and Eric N Smith (University of Texas) was published in PeerJ, a peer-reviewed journal, on Tuesday.

These narrow-mouthed frogs (family Microhylidae) are distributed in Southeast Asia where they are called as paddy frogs. The first known species of this group was discovered from the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. The latest one is a brand new species from Northeastern part of India.

The newly discovered Micryletta frog from Northeast India was confirmed as a new species by detailed comparison of both DNA and morphology with all previously known members across Southeast and East Asia. It is now formally described as the fifth member of the narrow-mouthed paddy frog genus Micryletta.

The first discovery of the new species was made from abandoned tea plantation and Jhum cultivation areas in Cachar district of Assam. However, their study also reports the new species from the Northeastern states of Tripura and Manipur.

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