''Aphantophryne sabini'' is a species of

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...

in the family

Microhylidae The Microhylidae, commonly known as narrow-mouthed frogs, are a geographically widespread family (biology), family of frogs. The 683 species are in 57 genera and 11 subfamilies. Evolution A molecular phylogenetic study by van der Meijden, et al. ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

and is only known from the region of its type locality, Myola Guest House in the

Owen Stanley Range The Owen Stanley Range is the south-eastern part of the central mountain-chain in Papua New Guinea. Its highest point is Mount Victoria at , while its most prominent peak is Mount Suckling. History Owen Stanley Range was seen in 1849 by Captai ...

, Northern Province. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

''sabini'' honors Andrew E. Sabin, an American businessman, philanthropist, and environmentalist who joined the expedition during which the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

of this species was collected. However, its vernacular name Guest House Guinea frog refers to the type locality instead.

Description

Males can grow to and females to in snout–vent length. The overall appearance is squat, and the head is notably narrower than the rotund body. The snout is rounded. The tympanum is poorly visible. The fingers and toes have rounded tips and no webbing. The hind legs are short. The holotype has orange-tan dorsal ground color, dark brown dorsal markings, and a white vertebral stripe bordered with black. However, most specimens lack the vertebral stripe. The darker dorsal pattern ranges from reddish brown to dark gray-brown. The flanks range from yellowish tan through duller tan to orange; the abdomen has a paler shade of orange ''Aphantophryne sabini'' is similar to '' Aphantophryne pansa'' but slightly smaller. The most distinctive feature is the male advertisement call, which is a prolonged series of soft "clicks" in ''A. sabini''; that of ''A. pansa'' is shorter but uttered at a higher click rate.

Habitat and conservation

''Aphantophryne sabini'' is known from montane grassy meadows, montane forest edges, and treefern-dominated grasslands at elevations of

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. Breeding is presumably by direct development (i.e., there is no free-living larval stage). It is a common species. There are no known threats to this species because habitats in the area where it occurs are probably reasonably secure.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2241972

sabini The Sabines (, , , ; ) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains (see Sabina) of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome. The Sabines divided into ...

Endemic fauna of New Guinea Endemic amphibian species of Papua New Guinea Amphibians of Papua New Guinea Amphibians described in 1989 Taxa named by Richard G. Zweifel Taxonomy articles created by Polbot