Tiny Singing Frogs in South America!

Amazophrynella

Hey kids, welcome back to our series on the mysteries of created kinds.

As a review, last week we met an Asian newt kind, the flathead toads. As we wrapped up last week, I gave you all a clue about this week’s created kind. Did anyone figure it out? Let us know!

This week we are moving to the jungles of South America, looking for a very tiny frog. Some species are less than three-quarters of an inch in length!1 Males are usually smaller than females, and the largest of the frogs maxes out around an inch.2 There are twelve species in this kind,3 but there are likely many more that have not been differentiated yet as this kind is badly understudied.4

Males of this kind sing a special advertisement call to attract females. Females are only attracted to calls from males of their own species.5 They live and mate in the leaf litter of the forest floor and lay their eggs in and around small bodies of water. Very little else is known about their life and reproduction.

This week might be the hardest one yet. There is just very little information on this kind. It does not even have a commonly used- common name. This week’s kind is the toads of genus Amazophrynella.

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  Amazophrynella minuta
  Rojas RR, Chaparro JC, De Carvalho VT, Ávila RW, Farias IP, Hrbek T, Gordo M, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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  Amazophrynella matses
  Rojas RR, Chaparro JC, De Carvalho VT, Ávila RW, Farias IP, Hrbek T, Gordo M, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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  Amazophrynella amazonicola
  Rojas RR, Chaparro JC, De Carvalho VT, Ávila RW, Farias IP, Hrbek T, Gordo M, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Want to test your knowledge? Try out this crossword puzzle!

Next week, we switch over to reptiles and head to Africa. Your clue for the week is:

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Clue

This kind has thirty-seven species and includes species with both two and four legs.

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Footnotes

1. Rommel R. Rojas, Juan C. Chaparro, Vinicius T. de Carvalho, Robson W. Avila, Izeni P. Farias, Tomas Hrbek, and Marcelo Gordo. “Uncovering the diversity in the Amazophrynella minuta complex: integrative taxonomy reveals a new species of Amazophrynella (Anura, Budonidae) from southern Peru. Zookeys 563 (2016):43-71.
2. Sarah Mangia Ricardo Koroiva and Diego J. Santana. “A new tiny toad of Amazophrynella (Anura: Bufonidae) from east of the Guiana Shield in Amazonia, Brazil.” PeerJ, 8 (2020).
3. Marcelo Menin, Marcos R. Dias-Souza, Carlos E. Costa-Campos. “The tadpole of Amazophrynella teko (Anura: Bufonidae) from the eastern Amazon, Brazil.” Zootaxa, 4830, no. 3 (2020).
4. Rommel R. Rojas, antoine Fouquet. Santiago R. Ron, Emil J. Hernandez-Ruz, Paulo R. Melo-Sampaio, Juan C. Chaparro, Richard C. Vogt, Vinicius T. de Carvalho, Leandra C. Pinheiro, Robson W. Avila, Izeni P. Farias, Marcelo Gordo, and Tomas Hrbek. “A Pan-Amazonian species delimitation : high species diversity within the genus Amazophrynella (Anura:Bufonidae).” PeerJ, 6 (2018).
5. Igor L. Kaefer, Rommel R. Rojas, Miqueias Ferrao, Igzeni P. Farias and Albertina P. Lima. “A new species of Amazophrynella (Anura: Bufonidae) with two distinct advertisement calls.” Zootaxa 4577, no. 2 (2019) 316-334.