Minervarya cepfi

The CEPF burrowing frog, Minervarya cepfi (first described as Fejervarya cepfi), was one of four new burrowing frogs described in 2017 by Sonali Garg and S. D. Biju from Western Ghats populations that had been lumped under the rufescent burrowing frog. It comes from the Amboli hill station in Maharashtra and is named after the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, which supported the work. The four were separated using DNA, appearance and differences in their calls. (news reports on the original description).

Like its relatives it spends most of the year underground, hidden in burrows or under leaf litter and large stones, and is not found near water. It is visible only for two or three weeks a year, at the start of the south-west monsoon, when it breeds. Scientists noted that pollution and tourism-driven habitat loss at Amboli could threaten it. (news reports on the original description).