''Boophis ankarafensis'' also known as Ankarafa skeleton frog is a species of

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" ''Triadobatrachus'' is ...

in the family

Mantellidae The Mantellidae are a family of the order Anura. These frogs are endemic to the islands of Madagascar and Mayotte. Systematics The family Mantellidae is composed of three extremely ecologically diverse groups of frogs, divided into three sub ...

. 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 else ...

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

's northwestern coast where it is only known from Ankarafa Forest, a forest fragment in the Sahamalaza-Iles Radama National Park.

Description

''Boophis ankarafensis'' are small frogs: adult males measure and female (one specimen) in snout–vent length. The body is slender, with the head much wider than the body. The background colour of dorsum and limbs is light green, but the webbing, finger, and toe disks are green-yellow. There are speckles of reddish-brown and yellow pigment covering the dorsum and limbs, and thin yellow dorsolateral stripes running from behind the eye to the forelimb, then fading towards the mid-body. There is some reddish-brown pigment that forms a band between the eyes and covers the supra-ocular area (interspersed with yellow speckling), as well as forming a faint rostral stripe between the eye and nose tip.

Habitat and conservation

Most individuals that have been encountered were males calling along the banks of two streams during nighttime. They were calling from vegetation about 0.5–2 m high, typically close to each other. Most females were observed in amplexing pairs, but one female was found in a tree during the day approximately 3 m high and 30 m from a stream. ''Boophis ankarafensis'' has only been found in

intact forest An intact forest landscape (IFL) is an unbroken natural landscape of a forest ecosystem and its habitat–plant community components, in an extant forest zone. An IFL is a natural environment with no signs of significant human activity or habitat f ...

, and it appears to be sensitive to anthropogenic disturbance. The species has not yet been assessed by the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of nat ...

, but it is suggested that is should be classified as " Critically Endangered" because the area of occupancy of this species is small (probably less than 10 km²), it is not known from outside the Ankarafa Forest, and this forest fragment is experiencing widespread deforestation.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17648802 ankarafensis Amphibians described in 2014 Endemic frogs of Madagascar