6 new species of rain frogs discovered in Ecuador
A team of researchers led by Professor Steve Schaus discovered two new species of rain frogs in Ecuador.
Tranquitas del Ecuador (Photo by the authors)
Rain frogs are among the most common amphibians in the Galapagos. They are found throughout the humid rain forests of Central America and Panama, where they are a common feature of many small streams and rivers in the rain forest.
Two new species of rain frog were discovered on the Galapagos in Ecuador (Sierra de San Jose and Los Andes). Previously, only one species was known in this region, T. caesius.
Rain frogs were first described in the Galapagos in 1999, when a single specimen from the lowland rain forest of Espanola was added to the collection of the University of Florida’s Museum of Natural History.
Professor Schaus, who discovered two new species of rain frog while working as a naturalist at the National Autonomous University of Colombia (UAN), was surprised to learn of the new species.
In the early years of the research programme in Ecuador, Professor Schaus, supported by UNAVCO, travelled to the Galapagos to collect specimens. He later joined the team from UNAVCO that carried out the field work.
While working in the Galapagos, Professor Schaus led several expeditions to the rain forest of the Sierra de San Jose.
He found the first rain forts, which marked the earliest stage in the development of the rain forest.
The other major discovery was a new stream.
Rain frogs are a relatively new class of frogs discovered in Central America in 1997, while work on the biodiversity of the Galapagos was being carried out. In the late 1990s, a field expedition led by Martin Munk identified two species of litoria from the rain forests of the Galapagos Islands.
Litoria (Photo by the authors)
The new rain frog species were described and named T. fusca and T. griseimaculosa in 2015. These species were the first rain frogs to
