''Breviceps carruthersi'' or the Phinda rain frog or Carruthers' rain frog is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

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 ''

Breviceps ''Breviceps'' is a genus of frogs in the family Brevicipitidae. Species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, ...

'' genus endemic to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. The Phinda rain frog is also known as Isinana sakwaPhinda in

IsiZulu Zulu ( ), or isiZulu as an endonym, is a Southern Bantu language of the Nguni branch spoken in, and indigenous to, Southern Africa. Nguni dialects are regional or social varieties of the Nguni language, distinguished by vocabulary, pronunciatio ...

which is the local language spoken in this species' native range. An IsiZulu description of this

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

amphibian Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniote, anamniotic, tetrapod, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class (biology), class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all Tetrapod, tetrapods, but excl ...

species appears in a

field guide A field guide is a book designed to help the reader identify wildlife (flora or fauna or funga) or other objects of natural occurrence (e.g. rocks and minerals). It is generally designed to be brought into the " field" or local area where suc ...

called A Bilingual Guide to the Frogs of Zululand. This frog was first described by Professor Louis H. du Preez, Doctor Edward C. Netherlands, and Professor Les Minter in 2017, and they named it in honour of the naturalist and author Vincent Caruthers.

Description

The ''Breviceps carruthersi'' like most other frogs in its

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

has a round body and an almost invisible snout the animals color ranged from dark brown to orange the frog has short limb which help it burrow and it has no webbing on its toes it also appears to have a black stripe under its eyelid.

Distribution and habitat

The ''Breviceps carruthersi'' is confided to one location Hluhluwe, Northern KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa at elevations from 88 m to 123 m. Even there the frog is rare as it is nocturnal and inhabits forest areas making it difficult to find.

References

carruthersi Amphibians described in 2017 Endemic amphibians of South Africa {{Brevicipitidae-stub