Romer's tree frog

species of amphibian

Romer's bubble-nest frog, Romer's Philautus, Romer's tree frog, or Romer's small tree frog (Romerus romeri) is a frog. It lives in Hong Kong. Scientists have seen it between 0 and 650 meters above sea level.[1][2][3]

Romer's tree frog
Endangered (IUCN3.1Q)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Rhacophoridae
Genus: Romerus
Species:
R. romeri
Binomial name
Romerus romeri
(Smith, 1953)
Synonyms[1]
  • Philautus romeri Smith, 1953
  • Chirixalus romeri Bossuyt and Dubois, 2001
  • Chiromantis romeri Frost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, de Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green, and Wheeler, 2006
  • Liuixalus romeri Li, Che, Bain, Zhao, and Zhang, 2008
  • Aquixalus romeri Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2009
  • Romerus romeri Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021

The adult frog is 15 to 25 mm long from nose to rear end. It is the smallest frog in Hong Kong that was not brought by human beings from somewhere else. Male frogs have white places on the first two toes of each front foot. The skin of the frog's back is brown in color. There is a brown line between the eyes. It has an X-shaped mark on its back. There are dark marks on the back legs. The skin of the frog's belly is cream-white in color. Some reports say there are dark spots on the belly and others say there are no spots.[2]

This frog is awake at night. This frog lives in forests, on farms, and in places in between forests and farms. This frog looks for slow-moving water to lay its eggs. It looks for water with no fish and almost no food in the water.[2][3]

Danger

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The government of Hong Kong calls this frog a Protected Wild Animal. Other scientists agree that this frog is in danger od dying out. In 1999, one of the places where the frog lives, Ngong Ping on Lantau Island, was named a Site of Special Scientific Interest.[2][3]

There are fewer of this frog than there were. This is because human beings change the places where it lives to build things, because human beings brought new frogs to Hong Kong, and because human beings brought new animals that want to eat this frog.[2]

First paper

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  • Smith M. A. (1953). ""Description of a new species of frog of the genus Philautus."". Annals and Magazine of Natural History (Abstract). 12. 6 (66): 477–478. doi:10.1080/00222935308654447. Retrieved June 11, 2023.

References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 Frost, Darrel R. "Liuixalus romeri (Smith, 1953)". Amphibian Species of the World, an Online Reference. Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History, New York. Retrieved June 11, 2023.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Itzue W. Caviedes-Solis; Jonathan J. Fong; Yik Hei Sung (August 24, 2020). Ann T. Chang; Michelle S. Koo (eds.). "Romerus romeri (Smith, 1953)". AmphibiaWeb. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved June 11, 2023.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group (2020). "Romer's Treefrog: Liuixalus romeri". The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 3.1. p. e.T58794A63851099. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T58794A63851099.en. 58794. Retrieved June 11, 2023.