5 Ganesh s.R. et al. - Duttaphrynus hololius laRval chaRacteRs FIRST OBSERVATIONS ON THE LARVAL CHARACTERISTICS OF GÜNTHER′S TOAD DUTTAPHRYNUS HOLOLIUS (GÜNTHER, 1876) S.R. GANESH 1,6 , A. KALAIMANI 2,3 , ANUKUL NATH 4 ANd R. BRAWIN KUMAR 5 1 Chennai Snake Park, Rajbhavan post, Chennai, India. 2 Conservation Research Group (CRG), St. Albert’s College, Kochi, Kerala, India. 3 Aarohi, Jayanagar, Bangalore, Karnataka, India. 4 Aaranyak, Assam, India. 5 Zoo outreach organization, Kumudham Nagar, Villankurichi Road, Coimbatore, India. Abstract: We for the irst time describe the larval morphology of Günther’s toad, Duttaphrynus hololius (Günther, 1876) from shallow rainwater puddles on rocks in Gingee hills, Eastern Ghats, India. We observed 123 metamorphosing tadpoles of various stages on 14 puddles surveyed. A few samples from each stage were examined for morphological characterization. No other amphibian species was seen syntopically in or around these rocky puddles. Key words: Amphibia, Anura, India, Gingee hills, gregarious tadpoles, rocky puddles, tadpole morphology. Resumen: S.R. Ganesh, A. Kalaimani, A. Nath y R.B. Kumar. “Primeras observaciones sobre las características larvales del sapo de Günther, Duttaphrynus hololius (Günther, 1876)”. Describimos por primera vez la morfología larval del sapo de Günther, Duttaphrynus hololius (Günther, 1876) encontrado en charcos rocosos de poca profundidad de agua de lluvia en Gingee hills, Eastern Ghats. Se observaron 123 renacuajos en varias etapas de metamorfosis en 14 charcos muestreados. Examinamos ejemplares en diferentes estadíos para la caracterización morfológica de estos. No hallamos otras especies de anibios sintópicos en los alrededores de estos charcos de rocas. Palabras Clave: Amphibia, Anura, India, Gingee hills, renacuajos gregarios, charcos rocosos, morfología de renacuajo. 05 Received / Recibido: 06 DEC 2012 Accepted / Aceptado: 22 MAY 2013 Published / Publicado: 31 JUL 2013 6 Send correspondence to / Enviar correspondencia a: snakeranglerr@gmail.com HERPETOTROPICOS Vol. 9(1-2):05-08 ISSN 1690-7930 (Printed) ISSN 1856-9285 (Online) Printed in Venezuela. All rights reserved Copyright © 2013 BIOGEOS INTROdUCTION Larval characters are a vital part of an amphibian’s life history trait, but remain poorly understood and documented for most species (Duellman and Trueb 1994). This is particularly true for Indian amphibians, where only information on larval characters exists for only a handful of common and widespread species and virtually no information exist for the vast majority of the endemic forms (Das and Dutta 2007). Günther’s toad Duttaphrynus hololius (Günther, 1876) is one of the most poorly known Indian toad (Biju 2001, Biju et al. 2004). Recent ield studies in the dry, rocky hillocks of the Southern Eastern Ghats landscape have shed light on its adult-morphology, geographic range, and habitat associations (Adimallaiah et al. 2012, Chandramouli et al. 2011, Kalaimani et al. 2012). Our visual surveys revealed the existence of breeding population of D. hololius in several rocky, ephemeral, rainwater puddles all over the hills and foothills in rocky hillocks of Gingee, Southern Eastern Ghats, Tamilnadu, India. Based on these data, we, for the irst time, provide an account on the larvae of D. hololius. MATERIALS ANd METHOdS During the northeast monsoon season, between the months of July and November, we undertook herpetological surveys at Rajagiri, in Gingee Hills (12.15°N, 79.30°E; 150-450 m asl), a rocky hillock- dominated landscape in Villupuram district of Tamilnadu State, India. Within this period, we surveyed a total of 14 ponds and visited each pond once between 10:00 and 14:00 hrs. Of these, ive ponds contained D. hololius. The dimensions of these ive ponds and the body and tail lengths of the various stages (following Gosner 1960) of D. hololius tadpoles observed are summarized in Table 1. All photographs were taken using a high-resolution digital camera (Canon® Powershot® SX130IS). Morphological examinations were