Any ideas?

[simon]

Found this on recent expedition to the Amazon but have no idea what it is. Does anyone know?

 

[william]

looks to me like it's an allobates femoralis, i know that that species has a yellow legged morph, but i don't know enough about the species to say that there is a red morph.

the guys here might be able to help:
http://www.dendroworld.co.uk/forum

 

[jeff]

Definitely looks like it's from the Epipedobates genus, but the species I couldn't say.

Anyone know the current status of Allobates? From what I understand it's a split off of Epipedobates. Is it official yet?

 

[chuck]

chek out dendroboard.com, someone there will know what the frog is.

 

[william]

as far as i know Allobates is offical, it used to just contain femoralis, but now it includes Epipedobates zaparo to. on another note, i've heard rumors of major splits in Epipedobates, with lots of species going to Colostethus

 

[justin]

I would say with fair certainty that it is A. femoralis. I'm guessing this is from Peru, right? As for the splits in Epipedobates, I am unaware of this. There is one major clade which contains some Colostethus within one typically associated with Epipedobates. There are new Epipedobates species being described (I am working on one, sp. f) from that clade. It's got some really interesting stuff going on in it.
j

 

[william]

i heard tricolor was on it's way over to colostethus

 

[justin]

E. tricolor, E. anthonyi, E. sp. f., E. boulingeri, and a few others are all in that clade. I will try to dig through my stuff and I can write it all out. It's a very interesting group.
j

 

[mark]

You went to the Amazon! Thats awesome.

 

[simon]

Justin - I went to Ecuador but close enough. it was a conservation expedition to map out the fauna of the pavacacchi region. Saw some amazing things like this little fella..

/image

 

[simon]

and hopefully the pic will appear....

 

[justin]

Interesting. I had lived in Ecuador from January-late July of this year-- and we never saw any of the flashmarks of that color. I'll have to check the map for that region-- thanks for letting me know. Did you find any other Dendrobatids on your expedition?
j

 

[simon]

As far as amhibs go, it was actually very disappointing. We only saw anurans. No newts, salamanders or caecilians! Saw quite a few B.margaritifer with some nice morphs

and some sleepy tree frogs, (again i dont know what they are, i'm not as good as i should be on my anurans!)

What area of ecuador were you in?

 

[aki]

Oh, you have obviously had a really nice field trip, indeed! Species on the picture posted by Simon Walker is undoubtedly representing Allobates femoralis. The species has a quite wide range in northern South-America including Ecuador as well. Most part of its distribution A. femoralis is relatively common and commonly found in forest floor and seen in diurnal period of the day.

A second species is more likely Hypsiboas granosus to me and formerly known and still found in most of the references as Hyla granosa (Hyla cinerascens in AMNH database). Revision is quite new (2005) and this species goes with plenty of different names in literature. It is still quite commonly seen species in Peruvian Amazon and Ecuador as well. Third species is, indeed, from Bufo margaritifer -complex as mentioned earlier by Simon too.

The forth and last, sleepy one creature, is definitely some sort of Osteocephalus species (in the case of this genus pay your attention and focus on the extraordinarily patterned eye of the specimen) and I would like to believe that it could be O. taurinus perhaps, but it is not so common species in the area and I could be wrong as well. In fact it is uncommon everywhere in its range of Peruvian, Ecuadorian and Brazilian Amazon and found in the Reserva Comunal Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo area for instance. In Ecuadorian Amazon, there is at least nine species of Osteocephalus present, and three or four of those are very much alike. Because it is nocturnal species (photographed usually by night) and many species of the genus are uncommonly seen, there is not so many good and properly exposured photos of different species exist. At least in the photos, their colorations and patterns seem to vary sufficient enough to mix those species easily together in identification process carried out via few photos taken on the field.

Few of those species in the genus Osteocephalus strongly resemble each other and they all are found in this particular country. Therefore, in a species like this, the proper identification, or at least more notes of the species than photos (I hope you did?), should be always carried out in the field if possible and if it is not possible or meaning to preserve the specimen and take it along with you for the proper examination. I cannot be sure of the exact species by those two photos but in the picture, there is obviously seen that you have some kind of inventory note sheet under the frog. Did you write down some strategic characteristics and measurements of this specimen in the field? Data information of the specimen would be in great help on this problem.

PS. Forgive my poor english...


(Message edited by aki_suzuki on January 09, 2006)

 

[simon]

Wow Aki!

You sure know your stuff! Yeah we took notes and measured everything we could of everything we found. We were quite a way from base camp at the time and it wouldn't have been practical to take the specimen back with us. Unfortunately, I don't have any of the information we gathered as it was all taken by the organisation I volunteered for.

Ps, your English is really good. Better than mine most of the time!