''Alsodes gargola'', with the common name Tonchek spiny-chest frog, is a species of
frog
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...
in the family
Alsodidae
The Alsodidae are a small family of frogs from South America between Patagonia and southern Brazil. It contains 30 species in three genera. This family, along with several other families, used to be included in the family Leptodactylidae. It was ...
.
It is
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
to Argentina, where it occurs in northern
Patagonia.
This species is a semi-aquatic frog living around
alpine
Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to:
Places Europe
* Alps, a European mountain range
** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range
Australia
* Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village
* Alpine National Pa ...
lakes and streams. It overwinters for 8 months of the year and the tadpoles overwinter beneath the ice and snow.
The species is threatened by exotic
trout
Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmoni ...
, but the populations are probably not yet in decline.
''Alsodes gargola'' adults and tadpoles have the ability to tolerate and adapt to low conductivity water and extreme overwintering conditions indicating that it could have the highest tolerance to overwintering compared to other frogs.
References
Further reading
*Logares, R. and Úbeda, C.A. 2006. First insights into the overwintering biology of ''Alsodes gargola'' frogs and tadpoles in harsh Andean-Patagonian alpine environments. ''Amphibia-Reptilia'' 27: 263–26
*Logares, R. and Úbeda, C.A. (2004): ''Alsodes gargola'' (Rana del Catedral). Overwintering Tadpoles. ''Herpetological Review'' 35: 368–369.
*Logares, R., & Úbeda, C. (2006). First insights into the overwintering biology of Alsodes gargola frogs and tadpoles inhabiting harsh Andean-Patagonian alpine environments. Amphibia-Reptilia, 27(2), 263–267.
*Baffico, G., & Úbeda, C. (2006). Larval diet of the frog Alsodes gargola (Leptodactylidae: Telmatobiinae) and some ecological considerations on its role in alpine and mountain aquatic environments in Patagonia. Amphibia-Reptilia, 27(2), 161–168.
Alsodes, gargola
Amphibians of Argentina
Amphibians of Patagonia
Endemic fauna of Argentina
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
Amphibians described in 1970
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