Leucostethus fugax

species of amphibian

The Pastaza rocket frog (Leucostethus fugax) is a frog. It lives in Ecuador.[2][3][1]

Leucostethus fugax
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Dendrobatidae
Genus: Leucostethus
Species:
L. fugax
Binomial name
Leucostethus fugax
(Morales and Schulte, 1993)
Synonyms[2]
  • Colostethus fugax Morales and Schulte, 1993
  • Leucostethus fugax Grant, Rada, Anganoy-Criollo, Batista, Dias, Jeckel, Machado, and Rueda-Almonacid, 2017

The adult male frog is about 17.9–19.5 mm long from nose to rear end and the adult female frog is about 19.3–20.1 mm long. The belly is cream-white in color. There is a line down each side of the body starting at the eye. There are some marks on the chest and throat.[3]

Scientists gave this frog the name fugax because that is the Latin word for "fugitive," or "runaway." They gave it this name because the frogs jumped out of the scientists' hands, especially Juan A. Rivero's.[3]

Scientists saw this frog in tropical forests on hills, forest that has never been cut down and in forest that has been cut down and is growing back. They saw it between 210 and 700 meters above sea level.[1][3]

The frog lives near a protected place, Reserva Biológica El Quimi, and scientists think the frog might live inside it.[1]

Scientists did not see the female frog lay eggs, but they think the tadpoles swim in streams because that is what other tadpoles in Leucostethus do.[1]

Danger

change

Scientists say this frog is in some danger of dying out. People change the places where it lives to farms and places for animals to eat grass and to cut wood to build with. People also dig into the ground for copper and cold. This stops forests and makes bad chemicals that can hurt the frog and other living things.[1]

References

change
  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group (2023). "Pastaza Rocket Frog: Leucostethus fugax". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2023: e.T55085A98644755. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2023-1.RLTS.T55085A98644755.en. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Frost, Darrel R. "Leucostethus fugax (Morales and Schulte, 1993)". Amphibian Species of the World, an Online Reference. Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History, New York. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Diego A. Ortiz; Luis A. Coloma; Caty Frenkel (October 14, 2017). Santiago R. Ron (ed.). "Leucostethus fugax (Morales & Schulte, 1993)". AmphibiaWeb (in Spanish). University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved October 14, 2024.