Rhombophryne testudo
| Rhombophryne testudo | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Rhombophryne testudo | ||||||||||||
| Boettger , 1880 |
Rhombophryne testudo is an amphibian of the family -mouthed (Microhylidae).
features
The animals reach a length of 32 millimeters. The top of the body is reddish, warts and skin folds are lighter. The front head is gray. The rein and temple area is blackish and lined upwards. The limbs are darkly banded across. The back of the thighs have a blackish, sharply defined zone under a light zone. The underside of the body is brown with indistinct white marbling. The body is short and broad with a high arched back. The very short limbs are partially enclosed at their base by a wrinkled body skin. The head is very short and broad. The forehead is very blunt and somewhat truncated. The crack in the mouth is very short. The nostrils are close to the tip of the forehead. The distance between the nostrils is greater than the diameter of the eyes, which are noticeably small. The fingers are very short. The first and second fingers are the same length. The toes are moderately long. There are no subarticular cusps. At the base of the first finger and first toe there is a large, blunt carpal and tarsal hump. On the back there are glandular warts arranged in several longitudinal rows, some of which merge into skin folds. Pointed and thorn-like warts are mainly found on the forehead and chin, but also occur on the sides of the trunk, the middle of the abdomen and around the anus. A fold of skin extends from the forehead above the eye and eardrum to the shoulder.
Occurrence
Rhombophryne testudo is endemic to the two islands northwest of Madagascar , Nosy Be and Nosy Komba . It occurs at altitudes from 0 to 300 meters. Reports from north-eastern Madagascar between Sambava and Andapa go back to confusion with Rhombophryne coudreaui .
The habitat consists of lowland rainforest as well as heavily degraded secondary vegetation and plantings that have adequate shade, trees and leaf litter . The species lives terrestrially and can be found in the litter layer or in holes in the ground. Based on the body structure, a predominantly digging way of life is assumed. In addition to secondary forests, the species also occurs in near-natural cultivated land, such as coffee plantations.
According to observations by Jörn Köhler and colleagues, two adults (presumably the parents) guarded the metamorphosed young animals in an earthwork under a large stone at the edge of a creek. Although direct observations are lacking, they suspect that oviposition and metamorphosis also take place here, and thus away from a body of water; this is known from other species of the subfamily.
Systematics
The species was first described by Oskar Boettger in 1880 . It is the type species of the genus that was considered monotypical until 2005.
Individual evidence
- ^ Fritz Nieden: Anura II . In: FE Schulze, W. Kükenthal, K. Heider (Ed.): Das Tierreich . Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin and Leipzig 1926, pp. 8–9.
- ^ A b Darrel R. Frost: Rhombophryne testudo Boettger, 1880 . In: Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference . Version 6.0 (accessed January 15, 2017). ( online ).
- ↑ a b Rhombophryne testudo in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2016 Posted by: IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group, 2015. Accessed January 16, 2017th
- ↑ F. Andreone, F. Glaw, RA Nussbaum, CJ Raxworthy, M. Vences, JE Randrianirina: The amphibians and reptiles of Nosy Be (NW Madagascar) and nearby islands: a case study of diversity and conservation of an insular fauna . Journal of Natural History 37, 17, 2119-2149, 2003.
- ↑ Jorn Koehler, Frank Glaw, Miguel Vences: Notes on the reproduction of Rhombophryne (Anura: Microhylidae) at Nosy Be, northern Madagascar. Revue française d'aquariologie 24, 1-2, 1997.