A New Species of Sphaerotheca Gunther, 1859 (Amphibia: Anura: Dicroglossidae) from the Agro Ecosystems of Chota Nagpur Plateau, India

Members of the genus Sphaerotheca are known to have the distribution in the low to mid elevation landscapes of South Asia. Most of the descriptions are either from homestead areas or from agro ecosystems except for a couple of species described from the mid elevated forest areas. The taxonomic uncertainties prevalent in the group was attended very recently, limiting the descriptions of five species to India, two species to Nepal and one each to Pakistan and Sri Lanka (one undescribed species from Myanmar). Here a new species assignable to the morphological 'Breviceps group' is described from the agro ecosystems of Jharkhand based on a combination of morphological, phylogenetic and geographical studies using integrated taxonomic approach. Besides, the distribution status of Sphaerotheca pashchima is discussed and the possibility of a new species occurring in Myanmar is pointed out.