Spanish painted frog

The Spanish painted frog (Discoglossus jeanneae, in Spanish sapillo pintojo meridional) is a species of frog in the family Alytidae (formerly Discoglossidae). It is endemic to Spain.[1][2]

Spanish painted frog

Near Threatened  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Alytidae
Genus: Discoglossus
Species:
D. jeanneae
Binomial name
Discoglossus jeanneae
Busack, 1986
Synonyms

Discoglossus galganoi jeanneae Busack, 1986

Description

The Spanish painted frog is a medium-sized amphibian. The top of the frog is predominantly colored with dark browns in the form of spots or stripes, and its underbelly is usually white or yellow. The males will have webbing between their hind toes, but the webbing will not be found in females or adolescent males. During the mating season, the males will develop black calluses on the toe webbing, throat, belly and parts of the forefeet.[3]

This species is very closely related to the Iberian painted frog, but they differ in a couple of significant ways. The Spanish painted frog has a shorter snout and smaller forefeet than its Iberian counterpart.

Distribution and habitat

The Spanish painted frog is endemic to the southern, eastern and north-eastern regions of Spain, but is more densely populated in the southern regions.[3]

It mostly lives in open areas, pine groves and shrublands from sea level to roughly 2,000 meters.[1]

Biology

Not much is known about the biology of the Spanish painted frog, but it is believed to be very similar to that of the Iberian painted frog. It is believed to be active year-round. Eggs are usually laid in small, shallow bodies of water.

Its diet consists mostly of insects and worms, though they have also been known to eat the young of other frogs and toads.[3] Most activity is done at night. The tadpoles eat plant material.

Status

The Spanish painted frog is classified as Near Threatened (NT) according to the IUCN Red List, and results from a series of droughts throughout most of its range. There is a high probability that isolated populations have become extinct along the Mediterranean coast.[1]

gollark: I believe you can pay to have arbitrary DNA/RNA made nowadays, yes, although it's quite costly.
gollark: Or close to that.
gollark: 1/3 of vaccines working is still a great achievement, but also doesn't mean it's fully understood.
gollark: And computing is a horrible mess where nobody agrees on lots of things, the industry is stuck decades behind research, and everything has awful security holes.
gollark: Or something something nontrivial zeroes of the Riemann zeta function.

References
  1. Bosch, J.; Tejedo, M.; Lizana, M.; Martínez-Solano, I.; Salvador, A.; García-París, M.; Gil, E.R.; Paniagua, C.D.; Pérez-Mellado, V.; Marquez, R. (2009). "Discoglossus jeanneae". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2009: e.T6713A12798514. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2009.RLTS.T6713A12798514.en.
  2. Frost, Darrel R. (2015). "Discoglossus jeanneae Busack, 1986". Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
  3. "Spanish Painted Frog (Discoglossus jeanneae)". Arkive.org. Archived from the original on 2015-09-05. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.