Being something of a very educated man in the world of amphibians but admittedly with my finger of the proverbial pulse in recent times I got a bit confused at this report.
Dancing frogs is what the BBC report calls these things but when I resting about this seemingly unusual dancing behavior it started to become somewhat ... familiar!
Although the frogs in the picture look different to the family of frogs I think they are related to they look more like something related to another, Epipidobates of South America which are plain cousins to the Poison Arrow Frogs, or Poison Frogs, of the Dendrobates groups, many renamed now, of South America?
The odd thing is the behavior they refer to as 'dancing' I think is nothing of the kind, until I have looked into it further. I believe these are types of Semaphore Frogs and the genus I am familiar with are Staurois. These wave they legs about while arising their toes to reveal a turquoise blue webbing because they bred near noisy waterfalls. So body in fact that it renders any vocalization completely useless and therefore they evolved, or learned, to use the blue webbing to advertise themselves. Hence the name Semaphore Frog and the same name as those guys that work on an aircraft carrier signaling to pilots on manoeuvering their jet fighter?
These little guys of the Staurois genus ate in a short list of amphibians that ate fascinating top me but never had the privilege of seeing them, let alone breeding them!
New 'dancing frogs' found in India http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-27330603
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