''Eleutherodactylus humboldti'' (common name: Humboldt's peeping frog, ) 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

Eleutherodactylidae The Eleutherodactylidae are a family of direct-developing frogs native to northern South America, the Caribbean, and southernmost North America. They are sometimes known under the common name rain frogs. Formerly the subfamily Eleutherodactylina ...

. 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 ...

to central

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and known from specimens collected in the

State of Mexico The State of Mexico, officially just Mexico, is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Colloquially known as Edomex (from , the abbreviation of , and ), to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is the mo ...

Taxonomy

This species was first described in 2023 and named in honor of German naturalist

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, natural history, naturalist, List of explorers, explorer, and proponent of Romanticism, Romantic philosophy and Romanticism ...

.Devitt TJ, Tseng K, Taylor-Adair M, Koganti S, Timugura A, Cannatella DC. 2023. Two new species of Eleutherodactylus from western and central Mexico (Eleutherodactylus jamesdixoni sp. nov., Eleutherodactylus humboldti sp. nov.) PeerJ 11:e14985 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.14985

Description

''Eleutherodactylus humboldti'' has a triangular head and measures in snout-vent length.Grünwald CI, Montaño-Ruvalcaba C, Jones JM, Ahumada-Carrillo I, Grünwald AJ, Zheng J, Strickland JL, Reyes-Velasco J (2023) A novel species of piping frog Eleutherodactylus (Anura, Eleutherodactylidae) from southern Mexico. Herpetozoa 36: 95-111. https://doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.36.e104707 Its dorsal surfaces have small

tubercles In anatomy, a tubercle (literally 'small tuber', Latin for 'lump') is any round nodule, small eminence, or warty outgrowth found on external or internal organs of a plant or an animal. In plants A tubercle is generally a wart-like projection, b ...

and are colored a brownish tan, whereas its ventral surfaces are translucent brownish tan with white tipped small tubercles on the belly and thighs. Its concealed surfaces on the posterior thigh and upper arm have an orange flash. The iris is split between a black lower half and a golden upper half.

Habitat and conservation

This species is found in clearings in pine-oak woodland in the Mil Cumbres region of the Eje Neovolcánico range. The three type specimens were found at an elevation 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 ...

at night, calling from low vegetation.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q123913688 humboldti Fauna of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt Endemic amphibians of Mexico Amphibians described in 2023