''Phyllodytes wuchereri'' 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

Hylidae Hylidae is a wide-ranging family of frogs commonly referred to as " tree frogs and their allies". However, the hylids include a diversity of frog species, many of which do not live in trees, but are terrestrial or semiaquatic. Taxonomy and ...

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 ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

in the Atlantic forest in the state of

Bahia Bahia () is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Mina ...

. This frog has been observed 400 meters above sea level. The adult male frog measures 25.1-26.0 mm in snout-vent length and the adult female frog 26.2-27.1 mm. The skin of dorsum and backs of the legs is brown in color. There is a white stripe from each eye down to the end of the body. There are vomerine teeth in the frog's jaw. The adult male frog has a

nuptial pad A nuptial pad (also known as thumb pad, or nuptial excrescence) is a secondary sex characteristic present on some mature male frogs and salamanders. Triggered by androgen hormones, this breeding gland (a type of mucous gland) appears as a spike ...

on each front foot. Scientists say this frog is not in danger of dying out because it has such a large range. It lives in

primary forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without Disturbance (ecology), disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organizati ...

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has regenerated through largely natural processes after human-caused Disturbance (ecology), disturbances, such as Logging, timber harvest or agriculture clearing, or ...

, and areas where humans have thinned out the natural trees to provide moderate shade for cacao farms. Scientists say that as long as cacao remains a primary crop in the area, the frog will have habitat. The male frogs can be territorial. The frogs live on

bromeliad The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a Family (biology), family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the Tropics, tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and on ...

plants. The female frog lays eggs in the bromeliads and the tadpoles swim and develop in the pools of water that collect near the axils. There is only one tadpole per pool but sometimes more than one pool per plant. Scientists believe this frog could be in danger if human beings were to collect their bromeliad plants, but they do not believe anyone is harvesting the plants as of 2023.

References

Phyllodytes Endemic frogs of Brazil Amphibians described in 1873 Taxa named by Wilhelm Peters Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Hylinae-stub