Hyloxalus maquipucuna

species of amphibian

Hyloxalus maquipucuna is a frog. It lives in Ecuador.[2][3][1]

Hyloxalus maquipucuna
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Dendrobatidae
Genus: Hyloxalus
Species:
H. maquipucuna
Binomial name
Hyloxalus maquipucuna
(Coloma, 1995)
Synonyms[2]
  • Colostethus maquipucuna Coloma, 1995
  • Hyloxalus maquipucuna Grant, Frost, Caldwell, Gagliardo, Haddad, Kok, Means, Noonan, Schargel, and Wheeler, 2006

The adult male frog can be as big as 21.2 mm long from nose to rear end and the adult female frog can be 23.5–24.1 mm long. There is a big stripe on each side of the body. It is bright yellow in color and it starts at the eye. The skin of the frog's back and sides is black in color. There are two black spots near the rear end and where the front legs meet the body. The female frog has a white belly. The male frog has a dark belly with lighter marks. The male frog's male organs are white in color.[3]

Scientists named this frog for the place where they found it: Reserva Maquipucuna. "Maquipuncuna" is a Quechua word that means "a valley that looks like two human hands making a cup."[3]

Scientists first saw this frog in a cloud forest in Reserva Maquipucuna in Pichincha. This place is 1800 meters above sea level. They saw it near a stream.[1][2]

Danger

change

Scientists saw this frog in 1984, but no scientist has said they have seen it since then. Scientists went to the frog's home to look for it, but they did not find it again. Scientists say this frog is in big danger of dying out and might be all dead now. They think that, if this frog is still alive, there are no more than 50 adults alive. Scientists think many of these frogs died in the 1980s from changes to the climate and because of the fungal disease chytridiomycosis.[1]

References

change
  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group (2022). "Hyloxalus maquipucuna". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2022: e.T55109A98645770. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-2.RLTS.T55109A98645770.en. Retrieved September 7, 2024.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Frost, Darrel R. "Hyloxalus maquipucuna (Coloma, 1995)". Amphibian Species of the World, an Online Reference. Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History, New York. Retrieved September 7, 2024.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Luis A. Coloma; Diego A. Ortiz; Caty Frenkel (June 17, 2010). Luis A. Coloma (ed.). "Hyloxalus maquipucuna (Coloma, 1995)". AmphibiaWeb (in Spanish). University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved September 7, 2024.