New frog from Meghalaya named after Khasi rice dish

Jadoh, a popular rice-and-meat dish of the matrilineal Khasi community, has lent its name to a new species of small, direct-developing frog recorded from Meghalaya.

Another new amphibian recorded by the same team from a different part of the northeastern State has been named jakoid, the Khasi word for ‘frog’.

Direct-developing frogs are those that bypass the free-swimming tadpole stage and hatch from eggs as froglets or miniature versions of the adults.

These new species have been described in the latest issue of the Journal of Threatened Taxa by Holiness Warjri and Madhurima Das of Assam Don Bosco University, Jayaditya Purkayastha of Guwahati-based biodiversity organisation Help Earth, and Hmar Tlawmte Lalremsanga of Mizoram University’s Developmental Biology and Herpetology Laboratory.

“The naming of Raorchestes jadoh and Raorchestes jakoid, two bush frogs, is our way of celebrating Khasi culture and drawing attention to the close links between indigenous communities and biodiversity,” Mr Purkayastha said.

Raorchestes jadoh was recorded from Langtor in the Eastern West Khasi Hills district at an altitude of 1,655 metres above the mean sea level. Raorchestes jakoid was found in the East Khasi Hills district’s Lawbah at an elevation of 815 metres.

These frogs were located in bushes and trees near human settlements, indicating a degree of ecological adaptability, although their habitats remain vulnerable to rapid landscape changes, the researchers said.

“Discovering a new species in my village is both humbling and inspiring. I hope naming it jadoh, a dish that brings our Khasi families together, makes this frog a symbol of pride and conservation for our people,” Ms Warjri, the lead author and a resident of Langtor village, said.

The researchers combined traditional field methods with advanced genetic and acoustic analyses to confirm the species as new to science. The two frogs’ unique calls, morphology, and DNA sequences have placed them within the Raorchestes parvulus species complex.

The genus Raorchestes is one of the most diverse in the family Rhacophoridae, currently comprising 80 recognised species. This genus has a wide geographical range from southern and northeastern India to Nepal, extending through Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and southern China, reaching Vietnam, Cambodia, and western Malaysia.

Meghalaya is home to around 70 species of amphibians, including R. jadoh and R. jakoid, 20 of which were recorded since 2000, highlighting the importance of the study of amphibians in the landscape of Meghalaya in particular and northeastern India in general.