''Eleutherodactylus tetajulia'' 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 southeastern

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

and is known from the Sierra de Cristal, Monte Iberia, Tetas de Julia, and Meseta del Toldo in the

Holguín Holguín (, ) is a municipality-city in Cuba. After Havana, Santiago de Cuba, and Camagüey, it is the List of cities in Cuba, fourth largest city in Cuba. History Before Christopher Columbus, Columbus, the Taino people settled in huts made fro ...

and

Guantánamo Province Guantánamo is the easternmost province of Cuba. Its capital is also called Guantánamo. Other towns include Baracoa. The province has the only land border of the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay. Overview Guantánamo's architecture and cultu ...

s. 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 ...

''tetajulia'' refers to Las Tetas de Julia (=the breasts of Julia), a pair of prominent peaks on Monte Iberia, near the type locality of this species.

Description

Three adult males 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 and two adult females in snout–vent length. The head is as wide as the body, The snout is subacuminate. The tympanum is round and dorsally concealed by the supra-tympanic fold. The fingers and the toes have weak lateral ridges. Skin is dorsally weakly rugose and ventrally smooth. The dorsal ground color is coppery brown. There is a dark brown middorsal hour glass-shaped marking, narrow, black interocular bar, dark brown horseshoe-shaped sacral marking, and black supra-tympanic and groin bars. The venter is purple with white marking. The male advertisement call is a series of 4–13 (mean 9.4) evenly spaced "chirps".

Habitat and conservation

''Eleutherodactylus tetajulia'' is a terrestrial frog occurring in closed mesic forests 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 ...

. The type series was collected at night while the animals were active on leaf litter. One pair, a male and a female, were found in a hole formed by the decayed center of a

tree fern Tree ferns are arborescent (tree-like) ferns that grow with a trunk (botany), trunk elevating the fronds above ground level, making them trees. Many extant tree ferns are members of the order Cyatheales, to which belong the families Cyatheaceae ( ...

some above the ground. Along with them were six eggs, probably from another female. Development is direct (i.e., no free-living larval stage). This species is threatened by habitat destruction and deforestation caused by subsistence farming and charcoaling; also mining is a potential threat. It occurs in the

Alejandro de Humboldt National Park Alejandro de Humboldt National Park () is a national park in the Cuban provinces of Holguín and Guantánamo. It is named after the German scientist Alexander von Humboldt who visited the island in 1800 and 1801. The park was inscribed as a U ...

, but the park is not effectively managed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eleutherodactylus Tetajulia tetajulia Endemic fauna of Cuba Amphibians of Cuba Amphibians described in 1996 Taxa named by Stephen Blair Hedges Taxonomy articles created by Polbot