Web-footed Coqui
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
||||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||
| Eleutherodactylus karlschmidti Grant, 1931 |
The Web-footed Coqui (Eleutherodactylus karlschmidti) also known as Karl's Robber Frog is a possible extinct Puerto Rican frog species from the coquí (Eleutherodactylus) genus.
[edit] Description
It was first described by Chapman Grant in 1931 and was named after herpetologist Karl Patterson Schmidt. It was one of the largest coquí species and the second largest frog (behind Bufo marinus) on Puerto Rico with a length of approximately 80 mm for females. There is little information about its ecology and life history. It was nocturnal. Their call was loud and sonorous. The eggs were laid in clefts or on rocks.
The semi-aquatic web-footed coquí belonged to the few coquí species which had membranes between the toes. But it was the only species which was fully webbed.
The web-footed coquí was endemic to the mountain streams and waterfalls in the Caribbean National Forest and El Verde cloud forest in the southeastern Puerto Rico. It was last observed in 1974 and is possibly extinct due to the fungal disease Chytridiomycosis.
[edit] References
- Hedges et al (2004). Eleutherodactylus karlschmidti. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes a range map, a brief justification of why this species is critically endangered, and the criteria used
