April 2011. In July of last year we were working on an amphibian ecology study at the Agumbe Rainforest Research Station (ARRS) in Karnataka, India (http://www.agumberainforest.com/)
We found several egg clutches and tadpoles of the brown leaping frog (Indirana semipalmata). The 11 species of the genus Indirana are all endemic to the Western Ghats of India. It has been documented by several authors that the tadpoles of Indirana frogs breed on rock faces surrounding splashing water and that tadpoles are semi terrestrial. We were surprised one night when we heard a frog vocalisation we had not heard before.
After a short search we located a single Indirana semipalmata sitting by a clutch of eggs laid on the bark of a tree. These eggs later hatched and we found tadpoles from a previous clutch feeding on the bark of the same tree. In total we found three Indirana semipalmata egg clutches all of which were at least 3m away from any standing water. To our knowledge this is the first recorded case of tadpoles feeding on a bark substrate and subsequently metamorphosing on the bark of a tree. This may be a localised phenomenon as Agumbe has the second highest annual rainfall in India and therefore these semi terrestrial tadpoles do not desiccate. Living in Agumbe during the monsoon was literally like living in a cloud.
This work was funded by the Gerry Martin project (http://www.gerrymartin.in/).
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