Hydrophylax bahuvistara

Hydrophylax bahuvistara,[1] widespread fungoid frog,[1] is a colourful frog found widespread in peninsular India, distributed in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa and Madhya Pradesh. It is very similar to another species with which it overlaps partly in range, Hydrophylax malabaricus.[2]

Hydrophylax bahuvistara
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Ranidae
Genus: Hydrophylax
Species:
H. bahuvistara
Binomial name
Hydrophylax bahuvistara
Padhye, AD, Jadhav A, Modak N, Nameer PO, Dahanukar N, 2015

Description

Hydrophylax bahuvistara can be separated from its congeners based on a combination of characters including outline of snout in dorsal view truncated, finger and toe tips without later-o-ventral groove, foot moderately webbed, metatarsals of 4th and 5th toes closely set, outer metatarsal tubercle small, dorsal parts of shank without glandular folds and sparse horny spinules, and heels touch each other when the legs are folded at right angles to the body.[2]

A host defense peptide isolated from the skin of this frog, urumin, targets the stalk region of influenza virus H1 hemagglutinin protein. It destroys influenza virions, and protects mice from lethal infection; thus urumin represents a novel class of anti-influenza virucide.[3]

References
  1. "Hydrophylax bahuvistara". AmphibiaWeb. 2015. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
  2. Padhye, Anand D.; Jadhav, Anushree; Modak, Nikhil; Nameer, P.O.; Dahanukar, Neelesh (2015). "Hydrophylax bahuvistara, a new species of fungoid frog (Amphibia: Ranidae) from peninsular India". Journal of Threatened Taxa. 7 (11): 7744–7760. doi:10.11609/JoTT.o4252.7744-60. ISSN 0974-7893. Retrieved 20 May 2017. This article contains quotations from this source, which is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
  3. Holthausen et al, Immunity 46: 587-595 (2017)


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.