Hyloscirtus tolkieni is the scientific name of a new species of torrent frog from the Andes in Ecuador. The researchers, Juan C. Sánchez-Nivicela, José M. Falcón-Reibán and Diego F. Cisneros-Heredia, baptized the new frog with this name in honor of one of their favorite writers: JRR Tolkien, renowned author, poet, philologist and academic, creator of Middle-earth and author of works such as “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings”.
Torrent frogs are a group of 40 species of amphibians that inhabit the high Andes of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru and Bolivia. Its common name of torrent frogs is due to the fact that its life is linked to rivers and streams of pure water in mountainous areas of the Andes. The adults of these frogs live in the riparian vegetation and their tadpoles develop among the rocks of the rapid waters of the rivers.
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Expeditions carried out since 2020 in the Río Negro-Sopladora National Park, a protected area recently declared in 2018 and located on the border between the provinces of Morona-Santiago and Azuay in the southeast of Ecuador, have allowed the recording of a large number of species never before. reported to science. This national park protects large forested areas that still remain unstudied.
“For weeks we were exploring different areas of the Río Negro-Sopladora National Park (located between Azuay and Morona Santiago), walking from páramo grasslands at 3,100 meters elevation to forests at 1,000 meters. We found a single individual of this new species of frog, which we found impressive due to its coloration and large size.”, indicated Juan Carlos Sánchez, associate researcher at the Museum of Zoology of the San Francisco de Quito University, the National Institute of Biodiversity, co-author of the study and the National University of Colombia.
The Río Negro torrent frog is easily differentiated from all other congeners by its large body size (65 mm); broad skin stripes on fingers and toes; back greyish green with yellow spots and black specks; throat, belly, flanks and undersides of legs golden yellow with large black spots and dots; black bars and spots on fingers and toes; and a pale pink and black iris.
“The new species of frog has amazing colors and it would seem that it lives in a universe of fantasies, like those created by Tolkien. The truth is that the tropical Andes are true magical ecosystems where some of the most wonderful species of flora, funga and fauna in the world are present. Unfortunately few areas are well protected from the negative impacts caused by humans. Deforestation, the expansion of the agricultural frontier, mining, invasive species, and global and regional climate changes are seriously affecting Andean biodiversity”, said Diego Cisneros, director of the Museum of Zoology of the San Francisco de Quito University and associate researcher at the National Institute of Biodiversity, co-author of the study.
They discover in Ecuador a new species of frog with large bright red spots
The new species is still known from only one locality and one individual, so the information is insufficient to assess the conservation status and the risk of extinction. However, the authors agree that it is urgent to establish research and monitoring actions to study their life history and ecology, population size and trends, study new sites where additional populations may exist, and assess whether threats are affecting their conservation. in the long term, such as invasive species, mining, emerging diseases or climate changes. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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