Bush frog, or Raorchestes ponmudi                                                             

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Context: Cardamom farmers welcome bush frog, or Raorchestes ponmudi frog species.

About Raorchestes ponmudi frog:

• It is endemic to the Western Ghats.
• The bush frog, or Raorchestes ponmudi, eats up moths known to destroy cardamom’s pseudo-stem, a major menace faced by farmers.
• This frog species eats up the shoot borer Conogethes punctiferalis that enters through immature panicles and attacks the shoots and stems, thus destroying cardamom plants, often in a large-scale.
• Unlike other frog species, the bush frog’s life cycle is entirely different, and water sources are not primarily needed for the growth of its eggs.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/why-cardamom-farmers-welcome-these-frog-species-endemic-to-the-western-ghats/article37176687.ece?homepage=true