Newly Discovered Rain Frog Named After Sleeping Beauty Mountains
Posted on August 11, 2016
A new species of rain frog has been discovered in the premontane forests of the Peruvian central Andes. The frog has been named after Sleeping Beauty mountains. This is the local name for the mountains where the frog lives. The Bella Durmiente (Sleeping beauty) mountain chain pictured below is named for its resemblance to a sleeping woman.
The frog's scientific name is Pristimantis pulchridormientes. "Pulcher" is Latin for beautiful and "dormientes" means sleeping. The common name for the new frog species is Sleeping beauty rain frog.
The frog has bright-red groins, shanks and thighs. It has a yellowish-brown body. The frog was discovered and described by Drs German Chavez, Centro de Ornitología y Biodiversidad (CORBIDI), and Alessandro Catenazzi, affiliated with both CORBIDI and Southern Illinois University.
Dr. Chavez says in the announcement, "When we heard the chorus of males, first thought was: such a strange call! When we saw this amazing frog, we knew that it is a new species. No other frog has that bright red colour on rear limbs!"
A research paper on the newly discovered frog species can be found here in the journal, ZooKeys.