''Pristimantis erythros'' is a species of

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 ...

in the family

Craugastoridae Craugastoridae, commonly known as fleshbelly frogs, is a family of New World direct-developing frogs. As delineated here, following the Amphibian Species of the World, it contains 129 species. They are found from the southern United States south ...

, and can be found in Cajas National Park in Chiquintad

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. Its striking characteristics are its scarlet red coloration, which differentiates it from all the species of the genus ''

Pristimantis ''Pristimantis'' is a very specious genus of frogs distributed in the southern Caribbean islands (Lesser Antilles) and in Central and South America from Honduras to northern Argentina and southern Brazil. With 617 described species (as of Februa ...

'', and the presence of parotid glands on the

trapezius The trapezius is a large paired trapezoid-shaped surface muscle that extends longitudinally from the occipital bone to the lower thoracic vertebrae of the human spine, spine and laterally to the spine of the scapula. It moves the scapula and ...

and

suprascapular The suprascapular artery is a branch of the thyrocervical trunk on the neck. Structure At first, it passes downward and laterally across the scalenus anterior and phrenic nerve, being covered by the sternocleidomastoid muscle; it then crosses t ...

muscles. It has an average length of 38 to 42 millimeters in females and 37 millimeters in males. It has direct development, as do all the species of its genus, and does not have an aquatic

larval A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...

stage. It was described on April 20, 2018, in the scientific journal

ZooKeys ''ZooKeys'' is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal covering zoological taxonomy, phylogeny, and biogeography. It was established in 2008 and the founding editor-in-chief was Terry Erwin (Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian ...

by a group of six researchers. Its

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

derives from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

word ἐρυθρός (''erythros''), meaning red, an allusion to its unique coloration. It has not yet been catalogued by the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

, but because it is losing habitat and occupies an area smaller than one square kilometer, researchers classify it as a critically endangered species.

Taxonomy

The species was described on April 20, 2018, in the scientific journal

by researchers Juan C. Sánchez-Nivicela, Elvis Celi-Piedra, Valentina Posse-Sarmiento, Verónica L. Urgilés, Mario Yánez-Muñoz, and Diego F. Cisneros-Heredia. It was discovered as belonging to the genus ''

'', however, it was not possible to separate it into any specific clade, with '' P. orcesi'' as its

phylogenetically In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical data ...

closest species. It is differentiated from any other species of the genus by the scarlet red coloration and by the presence of cutaneous macro-glands in the suprascapular region. Its

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

was found in Chiquintad

Azuay province Azuay (, ), Province of Azuay is a province of Ecuador, created on 25 June 1824. It encompasses an area of . Its capital and largest city is Cuenca. It is located in the south center of Ecuador in the highlands. Its mountains reach above sea le ...

, at an

altitude Altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum (geodesy), datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context (e.g., aviation, geometr ...

of 3 449 meters, in October 2014, being an adult female. The paratypes were also found at the same location, between October and November 2014, being males, females, and juveniles. Its

derives from the

word ἐρυθρός (''erythros''), meaning red, an allusion to the color of its skin, which allows it to be distinguished from other species.

Distribution and conservation

The only place where there are observation records of the species is in the Cajas National Park, more precisely in the

of Chiquintad. The biome of the site is ''

páramo Páramo () may refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountain Range, South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrower ...

'', where grasses and

shrubs A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

are present. All individuals found so far have been seen in terrestrial

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

(''Puya hamata'') and

grasses Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in ...

(''Neurolepis villosa''), near small

streams A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long, large stream ...

. The park where 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 ...

seems to be well preserved, but due to human pressure, the change of vegetation cover, anthropological use of the land and the lack of protection in the surrounding regions, the species is suffering the loss of its

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

, which currently corresponds to an area smaller than one square kilometer. Because of this, its discoverers classify it as a

critically endangered species 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 the ...

(CR). Its conservation status has not yet been assessed by the

(IUCN).

Description and behavior

Its average length varies between 38,8 and 42,6 millimeters in females and 36,7 and 37 in males. Its head is as wide as its body, but corresponds to only 8% of its length, its

snout A snout is the protruding portion of an animal's face, consisting of its nose, mouth, and jaw. In many animals, the structure is called a muzzle, Rostrum (anatomy), rostrum, beak or proboscis. The wet furless surface around the nostrils of the n ...

is short and rounded when viewed from the side and back, its '' canthus rostralis'' is rounded, the loreal region is concave and its

nostrils A nostril (or naris , : nares ) is either of the two orifices of the nose. They enable the entry and exit of air and other gasses through the nasal cavities. In birds and mammals, they contain branched bones or cartilages called turbinates, ...

are protuberant, with a flat interorbital region. Its parotid glands cover 65% of the dorsal suprascapular muscle and more than a quarter of the

. Its

tympanic membrane In the anatomy of humans and various other tetrapods, the eardrum, also called the tympanic membrane or myringa, is a thin, cone-shaped membrane that separates the external ear from the middle ear. Its function is to transmit changes in pressur ...

is distinguishable from the adjacent tissues, being surrounded by about one third of the tympanic ring and corresponding to 52% of the eye diameter. Its

choana The choanae (: choana), posterior nasal apertures or internal nostrils are two openings found at the back of the nasal passage between the nasal cavity and the pharynx, in humans and other mammals (as well as crocodilians and most skinks). They ...

is broad and rounded, with the tongue being wide and long, 25% of which is attached to the mouth. There are no protuberances on its back and its belly is areolate. Its back and belly are dark red, with the legs and limbs having a lighter shade of red, and the toes having a rose color. Its iris is dark brown, with golden spots. Like all species of its genus, it has direct development, with no aquatic larval stage, and with the eggs being laid on the forest floor, and can live without needing bodies of water. The individuals vocalize twice a day, from 8 to 11 am and from 5 to 7 pm local time. Its period of greatest activity is between dusk and 9 pm, and after that, the individuals tend to become less active.

References

External links

* *
Species information at ZooBank

Species information at BioWeb
(in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

) {{Taxonbar, from=Q52333642 erythros Endemic fauna of Ecuador Amphibians of Ecuador Amphibians described in 2018