''Callulina stanleyi'' 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 ...

s in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Brevicipitidae Brevicipitidae or rain frogs is a small family of frogs found in eastern and southern Africa. As of 2020 contains 37 species in 5 genera. eb application 2013. Berkeley, CaliforniaBrevicipitidae AmphibiaWeb, available at http://amphibiaweb.org/. ...

. It was discovered in 2010 during a survey of rainforests in the northern part of the

Eastern Arc Mountains The Eastern Arc Mountains is a chain of mountains found in Kenya and Tanzania. The chain runs from northeast to southwest, with the Taita Hills being in Kenya and the other ranges being in Tanzania. They are delimited on the southwest by the fau ...

of Tanzania. It was named in honour of the American zoologist, William T. Stanley, of the

Field Museum The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...

, Chicago, who has done much research into the amphibians of Tanzania. It is present at three locations along the eastern border of Chome Forest Reserve at altitudes between . It is rated as " critically endangered" 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 natu ...

Description

Frogs in the genus ''

Callulina ''Callulina'' (commonly known as the warty frogs) is a small genus of frogs in the family Brevicipitidae with nine members in Tanzania and Kenya. Originally ''Callulina'' was thought to be monotypic and widely distributed through Eastern Arc Mou ...

'' are

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 the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania. They are characterised by short blunt snouts and plump bodies covered with glandular warts. ''Callulina stanleyi'' has a snout-to-vent length of . The dorsal surface is mainly brown with symmetrical darker brown or black streaks. The body is covered with granulations, and the larger glandular masses are pale tan, as are the underparts. It has expanded tips to its fingers and toes, and these help to distinguish it from other similar species, '' Callulina dawida'', '' Callulina laphami'' and '' Callulina shengena''. It also differs from ''C. laphami'' and ''C. shengena'' by having visible

tympani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally ...

. It is very close morphologically to '' Callulina kisiwamsitu'', but it can be told from that species by its call and by DNA analysis.

Distribution and habitat

''Callulina stanleyi'' is known from only three locations on the eastern edge of Chome Forest Reserve in the

of Tanzania at altitudes between . Its total area of occupancy is about . Its habitat is humid tropical submontane forest and it has also been found on roadside verges at night.

Ecology

''C. stanleyi'' is nocturnal and can be found on the ground or scrambling about in low bushes. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

was found during the day in a rotten log. Nothing is known about the breeding behaviour of this frog, but phylogenetic analysis has been used to predict that it exhibits

direct development Marine larval ecology is the study of the factors influencing dispersing larvae, which many marine invertebrates and fishes have. Marine animals with a larva typically release many larvae into the water column, where the larvae develop before metam ...

, with the egg mass being laid on land and hatching into juvenile frogs with no tadpole stage.

Status

This frog has a very small range which is entirely within a protected area. However its three known locations adjoin the eastern boundary of the Chome Forest Reserve, and there is ongoing pressure on the reserve from the needs of the growing human population in the surrounding area. Small-scale logging still takes place in the reserve and any disturbance to its habitat is likely to be detrimental to the frog, so the

has assessed the frog's conservation status as being " critically endangered".

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2934314 Callulina Endemic fauna of Tanzania Amphibians of Tanzania Frogs of Africa Amphibians described in 2010