A new record of the Kallar Torrent Frog, Micrixalus herrei Myers 1942, from the Ranni Forest Division, Kerala, India

comprises 24 species in the single genus Micrixalus.Micrixalus herrei was described from Kallar, Trivandrum District, Kerala (Biju et al. 2014), and is known to occur in the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu with its range reportedly limited to the south of the Shencottah Gap (Table 1; Biju et al. 2014; Amphibia Web 2023).The Shencottah Gap (9 °N), one of the three major discontinuities of the Western Ghats, acts as a biogeographic barrier and plays a substantial role in the region's speciation (Biswas and Karanth 2021); for example, genetic structuring of populations has been observed across the Shencottah Gap for Indirana cf.beddomii (Nair et al. 2012).Herein we report the presence of M. herrei from the Ranni Forest Division, which is north of the Shencottah Gap (Fig. 1).Micrixalus herrei were first observed on 15 June 2023 at Naranamthodu, Kerala, India (9.40616, 76.98539), on 16 June 2023 at Nilackal (9.38436, 77.01598) and Chelikuzhy (9.38888, 76.94833), and a population was recorded from the splash zones of perennial second order streams in semi evergreen forest of the Ranni and Goodrical Ranges in the Ranni Forest Division during fieldwork in March-November 2023.Male frogs (Fig. 2) were collected, euthanized using tricaine methane sulphonate, liver tissues were preserved in 95% ethanol to confirm species identity, and the specimen was fixed in 4% formalin and vouchered in 70% ethanol.Morphometric measurements followed Biju et al. (2014).Species identification was confirmed by comparing 16S rRNA sequences.Genomic DNA was isolated from the liver tissues using a DNeasy Blood and Tissue Kit (Qiagen).Fragments of mitochondrial 16S rRNA were amplified and sequenced following the procedure described by Gopalan et al. (2014).