Purple Frog

The purple frog, Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis, also called the Indian purple frog, Mahabali frog or pignose frog, is an amphibian in the family Nasikabatrachidae found only in India's Western Ghats. Formally described in 2003, though a juvenile specimen had been described as early as 1917, it has a robust, rounded, dark purplish grey body and an unusually pointed snout adapted for feeding on underground termites; males are roughly a third the length of females, and the specimen used for its original description measured seven centimetres from snout to vent. The species ranges through the Western Ghats from the Camel's Hump Hill Range in the north to the northernmost Agasthyamalai Hill Range in the south, spending most of its life underground and surfacing only during the monsoon for a roughly two week mating period. It belongs to an archaic lineage whose closest living relatives live only in the Seychelles, pointing to an ancient biogeographical split, and it currently holds Near Threatened conservation status.