Five new species of shrub frogs have been discovered from the Western Ghats by researchers from India and the US.
Western Ghats are one of the globally recognised biodiversity hotspots.
The frogs belong to the Old-World tree frog family Rhacophoridae.
These were discovered by researchers from University of Delhi and Kerala Forest Research Institute and University of Minnesota.
This research is part of a long comprehensive study on the Shrub frogs (genus Raorchestes) of the Western Ghats, carried out over a period of nearly 10 years.
The findings are published in PeerJ.
The five new species are known as,
Raorchestes drutaahu,
Raorchestes kakkayamensis,
Raorchestes keirasabinae,
Raorchestes sanjappai,
and Raorchestes vellikkannan.
All these species are found in the State of Kerala in southern Western Ghats.