Philautus dubius (Boulenger, 1882)

Synonymy and chresonymy.

Ixalus jerdonii Günther, 1876: 575.

Rhacophorus dubius Boulenger, 1882: 81.

Rhacophorus (Philautus) dubius — Ahl (1931): 55, 93.

Philautus (Kirtixalus) dubius — Dubois (1987): 73.

Philautus jerdonii — Sarkar et al. (1992): 90.

Rhacophorus dubius — Das and Dutta (1998): 66.

Philautus (Philautus) dubius — Bossuyt and Dubois (2001): 26.

Comments on taxonomic status.

What is currently known as Philautus dubius was originally described as Ixalus jerdonii Günther, 1876 (Fig. 11). Boulenger (1882) replaced its name with Rhacophorus dubius when both Polypedates jerdonii (= Nasutixalus jerdonii) and Ixalus jerdonii were transferred to the genus Rhacophorus. The type locality of this species is still unclear, whether it is Darjeeling, West Bengal or the Khasi Hills, Meghalaya (Günther 1875; Bossuyt and Dubois 2001). Günther (1875) mentioned that although the single specimen of this nomen was from T. C. Jerdon’s collection from Darjeeling, the specimen might have been from Khasi Hills, Meghalaya, which Jerdon (1870) had mentioned. Dubois (1987) placed this species in the genus Philautus solely based on the large depigmented eggs present in the holotype. The taxonomic identity of this species remains unknown (Garg et al. 2021).

The body size (SVL 43.4 mm) of this specimen is larger than any known species of direct developing frogs from northeast India. Furthermore, the specimen has papilla on tongue, dermal fringe present along forearms, and moderate webbing on toes (TII, TIV, TV), and trace of vomerine ridge visible. Therefore this species is a member of other rhacophorid genus and not Philautus. However, fresh samples from the type locality or historical DNA from the type specimen will be helpful to determine the taxonomic identity of this species. In absence of molecular data and topotype, as of now we refrain from transferring the species to any other genus.