Mangalore: New Species of Frog Discovered by Researchers of St Aloysius College
Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (RS/SP)
Mangalore, Jun 16: Dr Harish Joshi, professor and head of the department of zoology at St Aloysius College and his co-scientist have discovered a new species of frog from the outskirts of the city and named it as 'Euphylyctis Aloysii’.
Briefing about the new-found frog species, the researcher and also the professor and head of the department of zoology in St Aloysius college, Dr Harish Joshy said that it is a tiny water frog with a mixture of dark brown and green colour. It has a mid-dorsal white strip, small black spots distributed randomly from beneath the eye to the fore limb base.
The new specie has been named to honour the college, in the name of St Aloysius, so that the name will remain permanently in the field of science, he said.
This new species of frog was found in the paddy fields of Adyar and Bajpe in the outskirts of the city, he said adding, their continuous efforts since the last so many years in the field of finding out new species in amphibians in biodiversity have yielded fruits.
Dr Harish Joshy carried out his search with a Japanese scientist Prof Mitusuru Kurumoto, from Fukuoka University in Japan.
He said, the frogs are friends of farmers. They eat the insects five times of their body weight, and as such, they help the farmers, by killing the insects which are detrimental to the farming activity. But the frog species are killed because of the excessive usage of pesticides and other chemicals, he explained.
“We had discovered a small frog belonging to specie that was on the verge of being extinct and made them to hatch in our laboratory. By this process, we have got more than 6000 frogs and released them in the paddy fields to multiply the species, said Dr Harish Joshy, claiming it as a conservation process by their department and as a part of their research.
The team headed by Dr Joshy has discovered 20 species in amphibians where as 19 species were found by himself, in the Western Ghats. Dr Joshy also added that there are 260 species of frogs in India, where as only 140 species are found as of now.
The research being conducted since the 12 years on the amphibians also helped Dr Joshy publish 15 scientific papers in national and international journals. The frogs are differentiated as new specie with their Morphometric Studies, DNA analysis and acoustic studies, Joshy said.