| Yellow-Striped Pygmy Eleuth | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Subphylum: | Vertebrata |
| Class: | Amphibia Linnaeus, 1758 |
| Subclass: | Lissamphibia |
| Superorder: | Salientia |
| Order: | Anura Merrem, 1820 |
| Superfamily: | Hyloidea |
| Family: | Leptodactylidae Werner, 1896 |
| Subfamily: | Eleutherodactylinae Lutz, 1954 |
| Genus: | Eleutherodactylus Duméril and Bibron, 1841 |
| Subgenus: | Euhyas |
| Species: | E. limbatus |
| Binomial name | |
| Eleutherodactylus limbatus Cope, 1862 |
|
Measuring only 1/3 inch (8.5 mm), the Yellow-Striped Pygmy Eleuth (Eleutherodactylus limbatus) is perhaps the fourth-smallest frog in the world.
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E. limbatus has a very intense mating call, but it is brief (6.9 to 24.8 milliseconds) and high-pitched (6.5 to 8.3 kHz), at a rate of 278 per minute. Female frogs have a single ovary and lay one egg at a time which is subsequently buried in the ground, where it develops quickly. [2]
The frogs are found in Cuba at elevations up to 1,150m above sea level, in closed canopy mesic and xeric forests. Their distribution is highly fragmented as indicated on this map, with the total land-area equaling 7,700 miles2 (20,000 km²).[3] Within this limited area, though, they are quite numerous. [4]
The four subclassifications of E. limbatus are distinguishable by their varying colorations: orange in E. jaumei, brown clear in E. orientalis, brown-reddish in E. cubanus, and dark brown in E. iberia. All are brownish overall, with a black-colored ray pattern along the back and two intensely-yellow longitudinal rays.[2]