A New Species of Minute Noblella (Anura: Strabomantidae) from Southern Peru: The Smallest Frog of the Andes
Publication Date
January 2009
Abstract
We describe a new species of Noblella from the upper Cosnipata Valley in southern Peru (Cusco Region). Specimens were found in the leaf litter of a cloud forest between 3025 and 3190 m elevation. The most distinctive character of the new species is its diminutive size (maximum SVL female 12.4 mm, male 11.1 mm). With an average snout–vent length of 11.4 mm (n = 7) in adult specimens, the new species is the smallest Andean frog, and one of the smallest anurans in the world. The new frog is rare (between 30 and 75 frogs/ ha) and found only in montane scrub and forest habitats near the ecotone with the high-Andean puna grasslands. Although the amphibian fungal infection (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) has been recorded in southern Peru, no infections were detected in the new species.
Disciplines
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Recommended Citation
Lehr, Edgar and Catenazzi, Alessandro, "A New Species of Minute Noblella (Anura: Strabomantidae) from Southern Peru: The Smallest Frog of the Andes" (2009). Scholarship. 62.
https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/bio_scholarship/62