Eleutherodactylus karlschmidti
| Eleutherodactylus karlschmidti | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Eleutherodactylus karlschmidti | ||||||||||||
| Grant , 1931 |
Eleutherodactylus karlschmidti is a presumably extinct frog from the genus of the Antilles whistling frogs( Eleutherodactylus ). This was traditionally placed with the southern frogs (Leptodactylidae i. W. S.); more recent systematic overviews postulate a separate family Eleutherodactylidae . The species was endemic to the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico . The art epithet karlschmidti honors the American herpetologist Karl Patterson Schmidt .
features
Eleutherodactylus karlschmidti was the second largest frog in Puerto Rico after the cane toad . The largest specimen collected had a head-to-trunk length of 80 millimeters. Usually the males were 50 millimeters and the females 48 millimeters long. The back was black or gray with a yellowish mottling or marbling. The yellow spots on the sides were larger and more intense. There was a narrow, light strip between the eyes. The violet throat sac ( vocal sac ) of the males was bilobed. The belly was yellowish-white with gray to black marbling. The toe discs were very large. Eleutherodactylus karlschmidti was the only species of the genus Eleutherodactylus in which the toes were completely webbed together.
distribution and habitat
The distribution area of Eleutherodactylus karlschmidti extended to the Bosque Nacional El Yunque in northeast Puerto Rico, to the Bosque Estatal Carite in central Puerto Rico and to the west coast between Maricao and Mayaguez. He inhabited mountain streams and rocky torrents in closed, semi-arid forests at altitudes between 45 and 630 meters.
Way of life
Not much is known about the way of life of this species. The diet consisted of arachnids , millipedes , mollusks , crustaceans and insects , with dipteras ( Diptera ) probably being preferred.
The males were mostly seen on boulders on the bank or under waterfalls, the females in hollow tree trunks over streams. The males' loud, creaky mating call consisted of a series of eight tones resembling bleating or barking. It was heard mainly between dusk and midnight.
The spawn was deposited in crevices or on the bare granite rock. The development did not take place via a tadpole stage , but directly within the egg shell. So fully developed young frogs hatched from the eggs.
die out
The disappearance of Eleutherodactylus karlschmidti is probably due to a combination of climate change and the fungal disease chytridiomycosis . In 1976 the species was last detected in the Bosque Nacional El Yunque; later it was searched in vain. Officially, the species is still listed as "critically endangered" (threatened with extinction), but it is very likely that it no longer exists.
swell
literature
- On the Habits and Food of Eleutherodactylus karlschmidti GRANT ( PDF full text ( Memento from January 6, 2004 in the Internet Archive ))
- Albert Schwartz & Robert W. Henderson: Amphibians and reptiles of the West Indies: descriptions, distributions, and natural history . - University of Florida Press, Gainesville, 1991. ISBN 9780813010496
- Juan A. Rivero: Los Anfibios y reptiles de Puerto Rico . 2nd Edition. Editorial UPR, 1998. ISBN 9780847702435 (Spanish, English)
- Patricia A. Burrowes, Rafael L. Joglar & David E. Green: Potential Causes for Amphibian Declines in Puerto Rico In: Herpetologica, 60 (2), 2004, pp. 141-154
Individual evidence
- ^ Amphibiaweb.org
- ↑ amnh.org
- ↑ Eleutherodactylus karlschmidti in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: Blair Hedges, Rafael Joglar, Richard Thomas, 2008. Accessed on 25 February, 2009.