Pseudophilautus maia (Meegaskumbura, Manamendra-Arachchi, Schneider & Pethiyagoda, 2007)

Open encyclopedia reference

Pseudophilautus maia, also known as the Maia shrub frog, is an extinct species of Sri Lankan shrub frogs described in 2007 from a single female museum specimen collected around 1860. It is housed at the Natural History Museum, London. It was named Top 4 New Species of 2007 by Arizona State University's International Institute for Species Exploration.

This species differs from all other Sri Lankan frogs in having a discernible tympanum, an angle of the snout of about 100 degrees, having a distinct supratympanic fold, sharp canthal ridges, supernumerary tubercles on fingers but not on toes, extensive toe webbing, and dark brown reticulation on the posterior surface of the thigh, and in lacking a lingual papilla and tarsal tubercle.

The specific epithet maia ("good mother") was chosen to refer to the parental care the frog may have performed in life. The collected specimen had eggs attached to its belly. It is possible the female may have carried the eggs with it, as some frogs do, but it is more likely that it was positioned on a nest when it died.

Wikipedia contributors, Pseudophilautus maia; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T18:16:47.405096+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Pseudophilautus maia (Meegaskumbura, Manamendra-Arachchi, Schneider & Pethiyagoda, 2007)

Name authority

(Meegaskumbura, Manamendra-Arachchi, Schneider & Pethiyagoda, 2007)

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Amphibia

Order

Anura

Family

Rhacophoridae

Genus

Pseudophilautus

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classAmphibia
9. orderAnura
10. familyRhacophoridae Hoffman, 1932
11. subfamilyRhacophorinae Hoffman, 1932
12. genusPseudophilautus Laurent, 1943
13. speciesPseudophilautus maia (Meegaskumbura, Manamendra-Arachchi, Schneider & Pethiyagoda, 2007)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Pseudophilautus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 395 records assigned to Rhacophoridae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=1102294 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:4P73H. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.