Account
What the sources say about this taxon, as written.
biology_ecology · 
Plazi
Natural history .—Specimens of M. bourgati are common in and around small slow-flowing montane streams at high elevations in the Andringitra Massif, e.g. on the Andohariana Plateau at 2000 m a.s.l. where they can be found at the edge of the water. They do not seem to occur higher up the massif, e.g. at Cuvette Boby we found only M. madecassus . However, at somewhat lower elevations (e.g. Imaitso forest at ca 1500 m a.s.l.), M. bourgati is also common along large streams running through rainforest. Our call recordings were made from a swamp area next to such a stream where specimens were observed during the day in the shallow water.
description · Plazi
Calls.— The advertisement call of M. bourgati , has been recorded on 16 January 1994 , 10:00 h, at Andringitra National Park, in a forest swamp area close to Ambalamarina, 19°C air temperature, but the calling specimens could not be seen, and the attribution to M. bourgati is tentative ( Vences et al. 2006 : CD 2, track 77). The call consists of a regularly pulsed note( Fig.18 ),emitted in series at somewhat irregular intervals. Notes exhibit some amplitude modulation, with amplitude continuously increasing from the beginning, reaching maximum call energy at the middle of the note, before continuously decreasing towards the note’s end. Numerical parameters of four analysed calls are as follows: call duration (= note duration) 756–1020 ms (872.8 ± 112.6 ms); 36–50 pulses per note (43.8 ± 5.9); pulse duration 8–10 ms (8.7 ± 0.8 ms); pulse repetition rate within notes 45.8–54.1 pulses/s (50.8 ± 4.1); dominant frequency 1063–1106 Hz (1087 ± 18 Hz); prevalent bandwidth 880–1740 Hz; call repetition rate (= note repetition rate) within series ca 19–29 calls/min. Tadpoles.— The tadpole of this species has not been described.
diagnosis · Plazi
Diagnosis .—A member of the M. curtus clade and sister to M. curtus . See Table 4 for a list of diagnostic morphological characters. The combination of relatively large body size of at least up to 41 mm ( Table 5 ; larger specimens observed in the field), slightly granular skin, strongly expressed foot webbing with almost fully webbed fifth toe distinguishes this species from species of the other clades. Within the M. curtus clade, M. alutus , M. madecassus and M. pauliani have smaller body sizes ( Table 4 ). M. curtus has a very smooth dorsal skin while in M. bourgati the skin is usually somewhat granular. Morphological distinction from M. a. ambohimitombi and M. a. miloko is most difficult, but as far as known, the distributions of these taxa do not overlap with that of M. bourgati . M. bourgati differs further from M. alutus by longer advertisement calls emitted at irregular intervals (vs regular series in M. alutus ). For detailed distinction from new species described herein, see the respective species accounts. A full list of molecular diagnostic sites in the 16S gene of M. bourgati in pairwise comparisons to all other Brygoomantis species is provided as Supplementary appendix.