Another new species from the lab! This is a small direct-developing frog with a striking ventral coloration - a large and irregularly shaped white mark on a dark brown background extending over the chest and belly -- see picture below. This one of a series of minute or small, terrestrial-breeding frogs that have recently been described from the eastern slopes of the Andes in southern Peru. Many of these new species have very restricted geographic distributions, often a few hundred meters in altitudinal distribution, and perhaps tens or hundreds of squared kilometers in range. The exact range is difficult to ascertain because most upper Andean valleys facing the Amazon basin are difficult to access.
The name of the new species, Noblella madreselva, refers to the type locality in the cloud forests of La Convencion, near the Peruvian city of Cusco, where local efforts such as the project Sircadia and the lodge Madre Selva are promoting a sustainable use of the delicate cloud forest ecosystems. Our collaborator Vanessa Uscapi from the Universidad Nacional San Antonion Abad in Cusco found several specimens of this tiny frog in the leaf litter. The description is published today in the open access journal Zookeys. Photos by Vanessa Uscapi.
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