Frogs

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10 species of frogs discovered

DC August 7

"Of the 10 new species, six are bush frogs, one a canopy bush frog, and two are associated with reeds....

...The new species have also received some interesting names.

One species is the Raorchestes agasthyaensis, after the Vedic sage Agasthya while Raorchestes manoheri is named after principal chief conservator of forests, Mr T.M. Manoharan..."

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This reminds me of the delicious piece See No Weevil by James Thurber.

Here are some extracts:

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"....The report from the Federal Register that Mr Peterson sent me contains the glad tidings , for cotton growers and Thurberia weevils, that the 1926 quarantine on the Anthronomous grandis thurberiae Pierce has been lifted. It seems that my cousin the weevil, has turned out to be a harmless insect, no more dangerous to the American cotton crop than the luna moth is to the Brazilian Air Force. I don't know who Pierce is, by the way, or how he happened to pop up in the name of the Thurber weevil, but it may be that he was the agent who kept Thurberia under surveillance for twenty-five years....

...I do not like to dwell on what happened when Thurber came home one evening, with the worried look that Mrs Thurber knew very well.

'What's the matter?' asked Mrs Thurber apprehensively, 'Have you discovered a new kind of non-flowering buzzard bush?'

He dropped into a chair, 'No,' he said. 'Do you remember that weevil I found on the Thurberia plant?'

She sighed. 'Yes,' she said, 'but I keep trying to forget it.' Her eyes brightened, 'Has it been taken suddenly extinct?' she asked hopefully.

'No, it isn't that,' he said, wearily. 'Something else has happened to it.'

'Are you going to sit there and tell me that Pierce has taken full credit for it?' she demanded. 'I always knew he would, and I told you--'

'Pierce hasn't taken credit for anything,' he said irritably. 'Thurberia has turned out to be innocuous. It's not even mischievous. Its quarantine has been lifted, if you have to know.'

His wife sat forward in her chair. 'I knew that would happen' she said. 'Don't you realize that hundreds of scientists have seen that weevil during the past hundred years, and that you were the only one foolish enough to stop and classify it? Now you've got yourself stuck with a weevil that isn't even dangerous, a weevil that lives on wild cotton, the most ordinary bush in the desert. Jane Forsythe was telling just the other day that it's as common as false fleabane. When you were out hunting for ticks and cactus and fungus, Jane's husband was discovering a beautiful golden flower--where are you going?'

Thurber had put on his hat and coat and walked to the door. With his hand on the knob, he turned and looked at his wife. 'I'm going out to discover the Thurber mealy bug,' he said coldly,' and 'when I do, I'm going to put it on the forsythia or on Mrs Forsythe, I haven't decided which yet.' And he went out and banged the door after him.

Mrs Thurber lit a cigarette and sat for a while lost in thought. It suddenly dawned on her what Belle Pierce would do when he found out that the quarantine has been lifted on the 'Thurberia Weevil'. She would make her husband drop his name from it, leaving the Thurbers stuck with Anthonmous grandis thurberiae. Their name would stand there forever, in lower case, and become the laughing stock (causus risus) of the entomological world."

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gps: I don't know what Mrs T.M. Manoharan would say to her husband, but can only surmise:

'Frog!, is it, after so many decades of selfless service to the forests, principal chief conservating them? I was dreaming of a golden deer.'...

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Those who are interested in surmising what Lopamudra would say to Sage Agasthya may consult (for the funda):

http://www.hindu-blog.com/2011/07/tumburu-theertham-at-tirumala-story-of.

and let us know.

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