Six new peeping frogs discovered in western Mexico
Six new peeping frogs discovered in western Mexico
by Mike Gaworecki on 11 May 2018
Scientists have discovered six new species of peeping frog in the western Mexican states of Jalisco, Colima, and Michoacán.
All six frogs belong to the genus Eleutherodactylus and were described in the journal Mesoamerican Herpetology last month. According to the authors of the article describing the new species, Eleutherodactylus frogs “are among the most diverse and taxonomically challenging groups of amphibians in the New World.”
The genus Eleutherodactylus consists of five subgenera, four of which are native solely to the West Indies and are relatively well-studied. The six newly discovered frogs belong to the fifth subgenus, Syrrhophus, a group that has received less attention from scientists. Frogs belonging to Syrrhophus can be found in Cuba and continental North America, where their ranges extend from Texas to central Guatemala. They are most species-rich in Mexico.
All species of Eleutherodactylus reproduce via direct development, meaning their eggs hatch small frogs rather than tadpoles. “Recent large-scale taxonomic works have redefined our understanding of New World direct-developing frogs,” a team of scientists led by Christoph Grünwald of the NGO Biodiversa and research group HERP.MX write in Mesoamerican Herpetology. But the last review of Syrrhophus was done in 1970 and species-level taxonomic studies, in particular, are lacking.
More:
https://news.mongabay.com/2018/05/six-new-peeping-frogs-discovered-in-western-mexico/
