Annotated list of anurans from the lateritic plateau of western India with notes on malformations

Lateritic plateaus of India are geographically and ecologically complex plateaus that support endemic flora and fauna. However, despite their uniqueness they are termed as “wastelands”. The plateaus’ overall treeless structure makes them susceptible to developmental activities like infrastructure growth, waste dumping, and urbanization. This paper presents a list of anurans compiled from surveys carried out in the years between 2016 and 2018 in the town of Manipal, a predominant lateritic landscape on the west coast of India. The list comprises of 19 species belonging to five different families, includes notes on microhabitat structure and associated species. We also present descriptions of malformed frogs recorded during the surveys. The growing demands for urbanization, presence of malformed frogs, and habitat complexities that support species densities highlight the need to re-evaluate our understanding towards these plateaus. We express our concern towards the need for conservation of these lesser known amphibian habitats.