A research mission has discovered seven new species of frog in a westward Region of India, The Ghats Mountains. Out of the seven new species, four of them come under the miniature size category, roughly small enough to fit on an adult humans thumbnail.
All of these frogs belong to the genus Nyctibatrachus and are only found in the western Ghats. The findings were published on Wednesday, in the widely acclaimed PeerJ journal, bringing up the number of known species in the aforementioned genus up to 35.
An amphibian biologist at the University of New Delhi and the research team lead, SD Biju commented, [O]ur discovery of several new species, particularly of easily overlooked miniaturized forms, reiterates that the known amphibian diversity of the Western Ghats of India still remains underestimated.
Sonali Garg, another member of the team told foreign media, These seven frogs are especially easy to miss. They were probably overlooked by researchers because of their extremely small size, secretive habitats and insect-like calls.
Other members of this class of frogs, typically known as night frogs prefer living near streams; whereas, these newly discovered species prefer forest vegetation and give off insect-like calls.
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