Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Whitenosed Bushfrog.
Frogs are members of the class called Amphibia. Amphibians are cold-blooded vertebrate animals. They differ from reptiles in that they lack scales and generally return to water to breed. Amphibians together with reptiles make up a larger group called Herps. The study of reptiles and amphibians is called Herpetology. Herp comes from the Greek word herpeton, which basically means "creepy crawly things that move about on their bellies."
Most amphibians lack scales on their skin, and it is usually smooth. Mucous and granular glands are present in the skin. Skin helps in oxygen uptake and release of carbon dioxide from the surrounding environment. Due to permeable nature of skin, water readily evaporates from the skin and dehydrates the amphibians easily. Hence they tend to restrict their activity only to high humidity and low wind periods to avoid evaporation stress. One can probably find more amphibians in moist environments and they are active during nights. Amphibians in the dry region tend to absorb water through skin from moist soils. Amphibians can change their skin color according the surrounding environment. Amphibians use gills, lungs and skin for the respiratory purposes.
Asian tree frogs are most closely related to true frogs (Ranidae) but seem to be the ecological equivalents of New World hylids by being arboreal and having enlarged toe disks at the ends of the fingers to aid in climbing. Most Asian tree frogs have large eyes with horizontal pupils and dorsal coloration ranging from green to brown and gray to black and white. Many have flash coloration (bright, patterned colors) on the inner thighs, which confuse predators when the frog leaps away and exposes these areas, thus distorting the frogs overall body pattern to the predator. There are members in the family Rhacophorous with extensive webbing that are able to glide by extending their limbs out as they jump, thus serving to increase their surface area. These species are arboreal, with strong jumping skills. This particular frog is Philautus waynadensis, one of the widely distributed and a common frog in the Western Ghats. In the past this species was referred to as Philautus leucorhinus. It is commonly called whitenosed bushfrog. It is endemic bushfrog with lower risk of extinction. Among the leaf frogs, eggs are usually deposited on leaves above ponds, where mothers keep them wet by urinating on them. Hatchlings fall into the water below.
Yuwaraj Gurjar.http://www.yuwarajgurjar.com/

No comments:

Post a Comment