The rock skipper (''Staurois latopalmatus''), also known as Sabah splash frog, is a

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

in the family Ranidae. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found 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 found elsew ...

to northern and western

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

(Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia).

Description

''Staurois latopalmatus'' is a medium-sized frog: males grow to a snout–vent length of about and females to . It has strong legs and is an excellent jumper. The original species description by

George Albert Boulenger George Albert Boulenger (19 October 1858 – 23 November 1937) was a Belgian-British zoologist who described and gave scientific names to over 2,000 new animal species, chiefly fish, reptiles, and amphibians. Boulenger was also an active botani ...

from 1887 is as follows:

Snout very short, broadly rounded, obliquely truncate at the end, with nearly vertical, concave lores; eyes large; interorbital space as broad as the upper eyelid; tympanum very small, not very distinct. Fingers short, dilated into enormous disks, the width of which equals three fourths the width of the eye; a broad web, is it omnivoreighter cross bands; hinder side of thighs blackish, speckled with whitish; lower surfaces whitish.

Habitat and conservation

''Staurois latopalmatus'' is most common in primary lowland rainforests; it perches on vertical rock faces in or near rapids in clear, swift, rocky streams. Male frogs call during the night from boulders. ''S. latopalmatus'' is commonly found across Borneo, along with related species '' Staurois parvus'' and ''

Staurois Guttatus ''Staurois'' is a small genus of minuscule true frogs. Most species in the genus are restricted to Borneo, but two species are from the Philippines.Arifin, U., D. T. Iskandar, D. P. Bickford, R. M. Brown, R. Meier, and S. N. Kutty. (2011). Phyl ...

''. This species can be locally very abundant and can also occur in disturbed areas close to primary forests. It is considered as being of "

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

" by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

, although deforestation remains a threat.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q135839 Staurois Endemic fauna of Borneo Amphibians of Brunei Amphibians of Indonesia Amphibians of Malaysia Taxa named by George Albert Boulenger Amphibians described in 1887 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Amphibians of Borneo