Additional Records of the Elusive Lateritic Plateau Toad Beduka koynayensis (Soman, 1963) (Anura: Bufonidae) from the Surroundings of its Type Locality with an Insight into the Genetic Data

Abstract

The Koyna Toad, Beduka koynayensis, was described some 50 years ago as Bufo koynayensis. Due to taxonomic changes in the generic position now the species is considered under the recently established genus Beduka. Although the terrestrial toad species are morphologically cryptic and difficult to identify them based on morphological characters alone the members of Beduka are exceptions due to clear body colour patterns and habitat specificity. Even though the species is well studied in terms of reproductive biology, call pattern and life history traits there is a lacuna in the understandings of its range of distribution, morphological and genetic variations due to limited field samples available in the museums and the genetic data availability in the GenBank. Based on the fresh collections around the type locality, here we report morphological variations across the different populations within the species. With the 16S rRNA generated in the study discussions are made on the genetic variations across its range of distribution utilizing the unpublished sequences available in the GenBank.