Data from: Two novel genera and one new species of treefrog (Anura: Rhacophoridae) highlight cryptic diversity in the Western Ghats of India

Amphibian diversity in the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot is
extremely high, especially for such a geo-graphically restricted area.
Frogs in particular dominate these assemblages, and the family
Rhacophoridae is chief among these, with hundreds of endemic species.
These taxa continue to be described at a rapid pace, and several groups
have recently been found to represent unique evolutionary clades at the
genus level. Here, we report DNA sequences, larval and breeding data for
two species of rhacophorid treefrog (Polypedates bijui and a new, hitherto
undescribed species). Re-markably, they represent unique, independent
clades which form successive sister groups to the Pseudophilautus (Sri
Lan-ka) + Raorchestes (India, China & Indochina) clades. We place
these species into two new genera (Beddomixalus gen. nov. and Mercurana
gen. nov.). Both of these genera exhibit a distinct reproductive mode
among Rhacophoridae of pen-insular India and Sri Lanka, with explosive
breeding and semiterrestrial, unprotected, non-pigmented eggs oviposited
in seasonal swamp pools, which hatch into exotrophic, free-living aquatic
tadpoles. Relationships and representation of re-productive modes in
sister taxa within the larger clade into which these novel genera are
placed, is also discussed. These results suggest that more undescribed
taxa may remain to be discovered in South Asia, and the crucial importance
of con-serving remaining viable habitats.