Arunachal Pradesh: Five New Jingophrys Horned Frog Species Reveal Himalayan Biodiversity

The news

A team of scientists from the University of Delhi and Harvard University has discovered five new species of diminutive horned frogs in Arunachal Pradesh, more than doubling the known diversity of the genus Jingophrys. The findings, based on five years of extensive explorations in northeast India, were published in the November 2026 issue of Royal Society Open Science, a peer-reviewed journal of the Royal Society, London.

The five newly described species are Jingophrys taniitatii (Tanii Horned Frog), Jingophrys tanogogo (Snail-eating Horned Frog), Jingophrys siangensis (Siang Horned Frog), Jingophrys hrdy (Hrdy’s Horned Frog) and Jingophrys wularsoni (WuLarson’s Horned Frog). Jingophrys tanogogo is the first snail-eating frog known from India and the first report of snail-eating behaviour in the frog family Megophryidae; researchers discovered entire land-snail shells in its gut using 3D micro-CT imaging. The study also recorded two new country records for India and identified other unnamed populations that could represent distinct new species.

The species were confirmed through multiple lines of evidence, including DNA sequence-based molecular phylogenetic studies, detailed comparisons of external morphology and the distinctive mating calls produced by male frogs. Sonali Garg, who led the research as a Biodiversity Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, said the findings exhibited how evolutionary processes could remain unnoticed in poorly studied groups without dedicated field and laboratory research. Prof. S.D. Biju of the University of Delhi, also a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard during the study, said Arunachal Pradesh remained an understudied region with rich and endemic frog fauna, and that some of the newly discovered species are highly secretive and occur in remote forests only during a short breeding season.

How were the new species named?

Three of the five species have names linked to local communities, languages or the regions where they were found. Jingophrys taniitatii honours the Tanii tribe of the Ziro Valley region and incorporates the Apatani word ‘tatii’, meaning frogs and toads. Jingophrys tanogogo uses the Apatani word ‘tanogogo’ for snails. Jingophrys siangensis is named after the Siang region. Jingophrys hrdy and Jingophrys wularsoni were named after anthropologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, medical professor Daniel Bruce Hrdy, and herpetologists Barbara Wu and Eric Larson at Harvard University in recognition of their contributions to herpetological field research and conservation biology.

What methods confirmed the discoveries?

Researchers combined DNA sequence-based molecular phylogenetics, external morphology and male mating calls as complementary evidence to distinguish the frogs. Micro-computed tomography revealed land-snail shells inside Jingophrys tanogogo, confirming its snail-eating behaviour. The study also recorded two new country records for India and identified unnamed populations that may represent further species, indicating that limited field sampling can leave evolutionary diversity undiscovered in remote forest habitats.