Meet the newest addition to the somewhat neglected, but full of hidden beauties Holoadeninae, part of the spectacular Terrarana group of terrestrial-breeding frogs: Noblella thuini. This micro-frog, less than 12 mm long (less than half an inch) lives in remnant cloud forests of the Ollachea Valley, in the southern Peruvian Department of Puno. Our lab publication describing the new species is published today in peerJ. We discovered this tiny frog with collaborator Alex Ttito during rapid surveys in the leaf litter of cloud forests of the Cordillera de Carabaya. This mountain range appears to support a large diversity of Holoadeninae genera, since four genera have now been confirmed to occur south of Ollachea. In addition to Noblella, these genera are Bryophryne, Microkayla and Psychrophrynella. Because most of these cloud forests have not been surveyed in detail, and due to the high beta diversity in these genera of high-elevation frogs, it is very likely that several more species remain to be discovered in this region.
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