Bicolored frog
{{Short description|Species of amphibian}}
{{Redirect|Malabar frog}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Use Indian English|date=January 2020}}
{{tone|date=April 2025}}
{{Speciesbox
| name = Bicolored frog
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| image = Bicolored Frog ( Clinotarsus curtipes ).jpg
| image_caption = Male in breeding colours
| taxon = Clinotarsus curtipes
| authority = (Jerdon, 1854)
| synonyms = Rana curtipes Jerdon, 1854
}}
The bicolored frog or Malabar frog (Clinotarsus curtipes) is a species of frog endemic to the Western Ghats of India.{{cite web |url=http://research.amnh.org/vz/herpetology/amphibia/Amphibia/Anura/Ranidae/Clinotarsus/Clinotarsus-curtipes |title=Clinotarsus curtipes (Jerdon, 1853) |author=Frost, Darrel R. |year=2014 |work=Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.0 |publisher=American Museum of Natural History |accessdate=4 May 2014}} The tadpoles of the species are black and form dense and compact schools in slow moving streams in forested areas.
Description
The bicolored frog's vomerine teeth scarcely developed, sometimes indistinct. The teeth are in two slightly oblique series on a level with the hind edge of the choanae. Its head large; snout short, rounded, with well-marked canthus rostralis and concave loreal region ; nostril nearer to the end of the snout than to the eye; interorbital space broader than the upper eyelid; tympanum distinct, nearly as large as the eye. Fingers moderate, first extending beyond second; toes short, nearly entirely webbed; tips of fingers and toes swollen or dilated into very small disks; subarticular tubercles much developed; inner metatarsal tubercle small, oval, blunt; a rather large, flat tubercle at the base of the fourth toe; no tarsal fold. The tibio-tarsal articulation reaches the eye. Skin finely granular above; a moderately prominent, rather narrow glandular lateral fold; another told behind the tympanum down to the shoulder. Clinotarsus curtipes is greyish or brown above, with or without blackish dots; lateral fold lighter, edged with black; a blackish oblique spot or band below the eye; upper lip with a blackish margin; limbs dark purplish brown, without cross bands; light brown beneath, the throat sometimes dark brown. Male with an internal subgular vocal sac.Boulenger, G. A. (1890) The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma: Reptilia and Batrachia.{{cite journal|author1=Desai R.N. |author2=Pancharatna K. |name-list-style=amp |year=2003|title= Rana curtipes coloration |journal=Herpetological Review |volume=34|issue=1|pages= 53–54}}
The spot patterns on the backs are often distinctive enough to use for population estimation using capture and recapture techniques. Use of this technique in the Bisale Reserve Forest in Kodagu during January 1999 – July 2001 gave a population density estimate of 0.08–0.1 frogs per square metre.{{cite journal|author=Krishna, S. N.|author2=Krishna S. B.|author3=Vijaylaxmi, K. K.|name-list-style=amp |year=2005|issn=0006-6982|title= Dorsal spot pattern as unique markers to estimate the population size of Rana curtipes|journal= Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society |volume=102|issue=1|pages=16–18}}
Adult frogs may occasionally feign death to escape predators.{{cite journal|author1=Gramapurohit, N. P. |author2=Shanbhag, B. A. |author3=Saidapur, S. K. |name-list-style=amp |year=2001|title= Rana curtipes (bicolored frog). Death feigning|journal= Herpetological Review |volume=32|issue=2|pages=103}}
The tadpoles are large (more than {{convert|9|cm|abbr=on}} in total length) and form shoals in slow moving streams.{{cite journal|author1=Hiragond, Ningappa C. |author2=Shanbhag, Bhagyashri A. |author3=Saidapur, Srinivas K. |name-list-style=amp |title=Description of the tadpole of a stream breeding frog, Rana curtipes|doi=10.2307/1566044|jstor=1566044|journal=Journal of Herpetology|volume=35|issue= 1 |year= 2001|pages=166–168}} They are collected for local consumption.
File:RanaCurtipes1.jpg|Underside of a breeding male
File:RanaCurtipes2.jpg|Upperside of a breeding male
File:Rana_curtippes_shoal.jpg|Shoals of tadpoles in a stream
File:Rana bicolor.JPG|A pair in amplexus
File:Rana_curtipes.jpg
File:Bicolored Frog or Malabar Frog.jpg|Malabar frog
References
{{Commons category|Clinotarsus curtipes}}
{{Reflist}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q2275896}}