Selva Sur Frogs, June 1999

Tom Davis

Last Updated: August 15, 2000

Here are some frog photos I took one night on a "night hike". I am grateful to Seabird McKeon for the identifications. He is working on a guide to the herps of Manu, and sent the following note about the photos:

Thanks so much for going through the trouble of putting those photos up. We won't need any of them for our project, but here are the ID's for you.

The first and fith photos are of *Eleutherodactylus danae* one of the most commonly encountered frogs in the Qosnipata valley. I'm not sure how much you know about the genus Eleutherodactylus, but it is a bizzare one. It is in the family Leptodactylidae, the dominant group of South American frogs. Eleutherodactylus is one of the most speciose vertebrate genera, and with each new South American valley that is explored a handfull of new species turn up. They all lay their eggs terrestrially, and bypass the tadpole stage and go directly to a miniature frog. Pretty cool.

The second photo is of *Bufo typhonius* complex toad. When they are adults they develop these wonderful crests and ridges (you can see the hints of these coming in in your photo). B.typhonius was split into 4 species recently on the basis of habitat and reproductive strategy (among other things) but for general purposes, Bufo typhonius will work just fine.

The third and fourth photos are both wonderfully distinctive Eleutherodactylus. Other than that, I cant tell you- I'm still trying to puzzle those two out. There has been a few studies done in the valley before, and I'll be checking around the collections. If you like me to let you know just say the word, and I'll email once I find out.

Eleutherodactylus danae:

Bufo typhonius complex:

Eleutherodactylus (sp?):

Eleutherodactylus (sp?):

Eleutherodactylus danae:

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