''Assa wollumbin'', the Wollumbin pouched frog or Mount Wollumbin hip-pocket frog, is a species of small, terrestrial frog

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 ...

to New South Wales, Australia. It is restricted to the slopes of

Mount Warning Mount Warning ( Bundjalung: ''Wollumbin''), a mountain in the Tweed Range in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia, was formed from a volcanic plug of the now-gone Tweed Volcano. The mountain is located west-south-west of ...

(Wollumbin), where it inhabits

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

habitat. Previously considered a population of the

pouched frog The pouched frog (''Assa darlingtoni''), or hip pocket frog, is a small, terrestrial frog found in rainforests in mountain areas of south-eastern Queensland and northern New South Wales, Australia. It is one of two species within the genus '' As ...

(''A. darlingtoni''), which was thought to be the only species in the genus, it was described as a new species in 2021 following a rangewide genetic analysis of ''A. darlingtoni'', which found the Wollumbin population to be sufficiently genetically distinct; it is also physically smaller than ''A. darlingtoni''. Despite its distinctiveness, it is separated from populations of ''A. darlingtoni'' by only ; in relation to the ancient

Tweed Volcano Tweed Volcano is a partially eroded Early Miocene shield volcano located in northeastern New South Wales, which formed when this region of Australia passed over the East Australia hotspot around 23 million years ago. Mount Warning, Lamin ...

, ''A. darlingtoni'' inhabits the former

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcanic eruption. An eruption that ejects large volumes of magma over a short period of time can cause significant detriment to the str ...

wall while ''A. wollumbin'' inhabits the former

volcanic plug A volcanic plug, also called a volcanic neck or lava neck, is a volcano, volcanic object created when magma hardens within a Volcanic vent, vent on an active volcano. When present, a plug can cause an extreme build-up of high gas pressure if risi ...

that is now Mt. Wollumbin. As with ''A. darlingtoni'', it shares the unusual parental care where male individuals carry developing tadpoles in subcutaneous pouches on their hips. , it was classified as "

Critically Endangered An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...

" under the

EPBC Act The ''Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that provides a framework for protection of the Australian environment, including its biodiversity and its natural and cult ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q116944456 Myobatrachidae Amphibians of New South Wales Amphibians described in 2021 Frogs of Australia