The vocal repertoire of Pseudophilautus kani, a shrub frog (Anura: Rhacophoridae) from the Western Ghats of India

Taxonomic descriptions of new anuran species are published with high frequency in the recent systematics literature. In contrast, there are fewer detailed quantitative descriptions of the vocalizations of these new species. Here, we describe the vocalizations of a recently described shrub frog, Pseudophilautus kani (Anura: Rhacophoridae; Biju and Bossuyt 2009) endemic to the Western Ghats region of India. We recorded two distinct, pulsatile call types that could be distinguished by their temporal and spectral properties as well as their mode of production. Type 1 calls (creek) were short ( ≈ 85 ms), consisted of about six or seven pulses (92 pulses/s) and had a spectrum with a single frequency peak at about 3.5 kHz. By comparison, Type 2 calls (ta-ta-ta-ta) were typically longer ( ≈ 320 ms), contained fewer pulses (4–5) produced at much lower rates (12 pulses/s) and had broadband spectra with multiple frequency peaks, two of which were consistently present at about 2.3 and 4.6 kHz. Video analyses indicated that males produced pulses in Type 1 calls using a single, continuous contraction of the trunk musculature, whereas pulses of Type 2 calls were produced with separate muscle contractions. In both call types, spectral properties were significantly negatively related with body length and body mass. The pulse rate and pulse period of Type 2 calls were also related to body size. No call properties were correlated with body condition. Patterns of individual variation in call properties were generally consistent with those described for other anurans.