scientists from hyderabad's center for cellular and molecular biology discovered the frog in 2017. they named the frog after scientist dr. subramaniam bhupathy, who died in the western ghat mountains in 2014. they wrote about "n. bhupathi" in "alytes", the official magazine of the international society for the study and conservation of amphibians. they found "n. bhupathi" by listening for frog sounds coming up from underground.