The fungoid frog or Malabar Hills frog (''Hydrophylax malabaricus'') is a colourful

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...

found on the

forest floor The forest floor, also called detritus or wikt:duff#Noun 2, duff, is the part of a forest ecosystem that mediates between the living, aboveground portion of the forest and the mineral soil, principally composed of dead and decaying plant matter ...

and lower vegetation in the Western Ghats in south-western

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

from Bombay to Kerala. It is very similar to another species with which it overlaps partly in range, '' Hydrophylax bahuvistara'' which extends further into parts of central India. Although restricted in range within peninsular India, they are of least conservation concern. Their upper parts vary in colour from brownish-red to bright crimson.

Description

Vomerine teeth in two oval oblique groups between the choanae. Head moderate, depressed; snout moderate, hardly as long as the diameter of the orbit, subacuminate, moderately prominent; loreal region concave; nostril nearer to the end of the snout than to the eye; interorbital space rather narrower than the upper eyelid; tympanum very distinct, nearly as large as the eye. fingers moderate, first extending beyond second; toes rather short, half webbed : tips of fingers and toes swollen; subarticular tubercles very strong; inner metatarsal tubercle oval, blunt; a large rounded tubercle at the base of the fourth toe; no tarsal fold. The tibio-tarsal articulation reaches the tympanum or the eye. Skin finely granulate above; a broad, not very prominent glandular lateral fold; a strong glandular fold from below the eye to the shoulder, followed by one or two glandules. Head and body bright crimson above, blackish brown on the sides; back sometimes with a few small black spots; upper lip, and a series of spots on the flank, white; limbs blackish brown above, spotted and marbled with pale brown and while; beneath uniform white, or marbled brown and white.Boulenger, G. A. (1890) The Fauna of British India: Reptilia and Batrachia

References

Hylarana Frogs of India Fauna of Maharashtra Endemic fauna of the Western Ghats Amphibians described in 1838 {{Ranidae-stub