| Hyloscirtus colymba | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Order: | Anura |
| Family: | Hylidae |
| Genus: | Hyloscirtus |
| Species: | H. colymba |
| Binomial name | |
| Hyloscirtus colymba (Dunn, 1931) |
|
| Synonyms | |
|
Hyla alvaradoi Taylor, 1952 |
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Hyloscirtus colymba or La Loma Treefrog is a species of frog in the Hylidae family. It is found in Costa Rica, Panama, and possibly Colombia. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical moist montanes, and rivers. It is threatened by habitat loss and chytridiomycosis [1]
Contents |
This attractive, small green or brown stream-breeding frog has a faint orange or creamy eyestripe, with occasional dark flecking and webbed fingers and toes. Adult males are 31-37mm, while females can be larger, growing up to 39mm. Adult males have a creamy colored mental gland on the chin, a pale bluish-green throat and a single gular sac, and no nuptial pads. It can be distinguished from Hyloscirtus palmeri which lack the eyestripe and from Isthmohyla angustilineata that has a stripe continuing to the groin area and no finger webbing [2].
Tadpoles are large, bronze colored with large, irregular gold flecks and can grow up to 37mm, and metamorphs are 17-19mm. Larvae are well-equipped for grazing with an inferior oral disc consisting of a beak and 6-7/7-10 denticle rows [3]. They tend to live in fast-flowing streams in rock piles and are nocturnal.
Males make high-pitched cricket-like chirps from beneath rocks and plants near swift-flowing streams, and stop calling at the slightest disturbance, making them very difficult to catch. Field observations from Pamama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project operations in Cerro Brewster found that males were unusually prominent when sick with chytridiomycosis [4].
Where extant, these frogs are probably more abundant than people realize, because of their highly secretive behavior. However, H. colymba adults have completely disappeared from stream sites in Western Panama sites due to chytridiomycosis [5]. Tadpoles are also susceptible exhibiting loss of karatinised mouthparts when infected [6]. Because they have now disappeared from much of their western chytridiomycosis-infected range, these frogs were ranked as high priority for ex-situ conservation in an Amphibian Ark assessment [7]. An ex-situ assurance colony has been established by the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project based in Panama City, where the species was first bred in captivity in 2010 [8].