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The National Biodiversity Institute (Inabio) announced in a statement on July 9 that a new species of glass frog, named for its transparent abdomen, which in some cases allows its internal organs to be seen, has been discovered in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
The species, discovered by researchers from Inabio, the Catholic University of Ecuador (PUCE) and San Francisco de Quito (USFQ), was named “centtrolene kutuku” in honor of the Kutuku Mountains where it is found.
although Glass frog They have a very high diversity in the mountains of Ecuador, and they have never been found before in the Kutucu Mountains, an ancient sub-Andean mountain range that formed millions of years ago in the Andes.
“Unfortunately, mining concessions threaten this new species, and the town where it was found is not within a protected area,” warned Inabio.
The Kutuku glass frog lives in montane forests along sandstone plateaus, in areas covered with mosses.
“The species’ distribution within the Cordillera is likely larger, and more studies are needed to determine its population status and extinction risk,” Inabio said.
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The new species is identified by its bright green skin with light green spots, numerous but tiny warts on the skin and a small body size, up to 22 mm in length.
Like other glass frogs, males have spurs on their arms, which they use to defend their territories.
According to molecular analysis, the new species originated more than two million years ago, at the end of the Pleistocene geological period.
The researchers who described the new species, Santiago R. Ron, Dominike García, David Brito-Zapata, Elías Figueroa-Coronel, Carolina Reyes-Puig and Diego F. Cisneros-Heredia, performed an analysis of its anatomy and coloration, as well as molecular studies to shed light on the evolutionary relationships of the Kutuku glass frog.
These analyses showed that its closest relative is the Campos glass frog, a species also recently described and found on the other side of the Andes, in the coastal province of El Oro in the southwestern Andes of Ecuador.
This evolutionary and distribution pattern of having sister species on both sides of the Andes is unusual and rarely reported in other amphibian species.
The study, published in the international scientific journal Zoosystematics and Evolution, also provides new information about the Zarza glass frog ( Centtrolene zarza ), which has expanded its geographical range in the Andes Mountains, the Cutucu Mountains, and condors in southeastern Ecuador.
This provides new information about its morphology, natural history and risk of extinction. Likewise, it has also assessed the presence in Ecuador of the Muller’s glass frog (centrolen gallinari), which was previously found only in Peru, Iñabio concluded in the statement. (I) Efei
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