title: Lost and found: One of the world's most elusive amphibians, Pseudophilautus stellatus (Kelaart 1853) rediscovered.
abstract: Pseudophilautus stellatus (Kelaart 1853) has been rediscovered from the Peak Wilderness, Central Hills of Sri Lanka. The species, till now known only from its lost holotype, was the first shrub frog described from Sri Lanka, and had not been reported since then. It was thought to have become extinct for nearly 157 years, being the amphibian species "lost" for the longest amount of time. Here we designate a neotype from the material collected at what we consider its type locality, having considered characters of the lost holotype and provide a complete description. We have conducted a molecular phylogenetic analysis, on which basis the species is well differentiated from all other Pseudophilautus sequenced so far, and placed in a clade together with P. femoralis, P. frankenbergi, P. mooreorum, and P. poppiae.
authors.affiliation: Herpetological Foundation of Sri Lanka, 31/5, Alwis Town, Hendala, Wattala, Sri Lanka. boiga2000@gmail.com
authors.forename: L J Mendis
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Wickramasinghe
authors.forename: Dulan Ranga
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Vidanapathirana
authors.forename: Sameera
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Airyarathne
authors.forename: Gehan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rajeev
authors.forename: Amila
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chanaka
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pastorini
authors.forename: Gayan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chathuranga
authors.forename: Nethu
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wickramasinghe
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001001:Anura / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal / Q000235:genetics; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013188:Sri Lanka
chemical_list: D012335:RNA, Ribosomal; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; C075526:RNA, ribosomal, 12S