''Churamiti'' is a genus of

toad Toad (also known as a hoptoad) is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands. In popular culture (folk taxonomy ...

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 Tanzania. It is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

and represented by a single species, ''Churamiti maridadi''. This species is only known from its type locality in the Mamiwa-Kisara Forest Reserve in the

Ukaguru Mountains The Ukaguru Mountains (''Milima ya Ukaguru'' in Swahili) are a mountain range in eastern Tanzania. The mountains are administratively located in the Morogoro Region, specifically in the Kilosa District. The mountains are named for the Kaguru peopl ...

. Only four specimens are known. The scientific name is derived from the

Swahili Swahili may refer to: * Swahili language, a Bantu language officially used in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda and widely spoken in the African Great Lakes. * Swahili people, an ethnic group in East Africa. * Swahili culture, the culture of the Swahili p ...

words ' meaning toad or frog, ' meaning tree, and ' meaning beautiful, for the descriptive "beautiful tree-toad".

Description

The two females in the

type series In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes t ...

measure in snout–vent length. The head is wide, flattened, and with a snout that is blunt in profile. The eyes are protruding; the upper eyelid is glandular. The back, deep metallic yellow in colour, is smooth but has many rounded, glandular warts that extend on to the limbs and are of striking reddish-brown colour. The limbs are partly yellow, partly pinkish. The finger and toe tips are large and expanded.

Habitat and conservation

All specimens have collected from moist valleys 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 ...

. It lives arboreally. It is listed as a

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 ...

species due to a restricted range and

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q11842324, from2=Q2124487 Monotypic amphibian genera Bufonidae Frogs of Africa Amphibians of Tanzania Endemic fauna of Tanzania Amphibians described in 2002