''Anomaloglossus stepheni'' (common name: Stephen's rocket 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

Aromobatidae The Aromobatidae are a family of frogs native to Central and South America. They are sometimes referred to as cryptic forest frogs or cryptic poison frogs. They are the sister taxon of the Dendrobatidae, the poison dart frogs, but are not as toxi ...

. It is found in

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...

and adjacent

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Description

''Colostethus stepheni'' is a small frog. Males measure about from snout to vent and females about . Its general colour is some shade of brown and it has a dark stripe running down either side extending about half way along the body. There are bluish-white specks below this and on the toes. The male has a white or grey vocal sac and the female a pale throat.

Distribution

''Colostethus stepheni'' occurs in

and adjacent

as well as in the

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

of Brazil where it is widespread in the

Adolfo Ducke Forest Reserve Amazon CIAT (5)

Adolfo Ducke Forest Reserve (Reserva Florestal Adol ...

near the confluence of the Rio Negro and

Solimões River Solimões () is the name often given to upper stretches of the Amazon River in Brazil from its confluence with the Rio Negro upstream to the border of Peru. Geography The Amazon / Solimões river just above the confluence of the Solimões and ...

Biology

''Colostethus stepheni'' is a diurnal, terrestrial species spending its life in forest litter where it forages on invertebrates such as

termite Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes (eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blattode ...

beetles Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

and

flies Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced ...

. Breeding takes place in the rainy season. The male finds a suitable location and calls to attract a female. The nesting site is a boat-shaped curled up fallen leaf with another above acting as a roof. The female lays three to six eggs with gelatinous capsules inside the hollow leaf and remains at the nest for about an hour. After that she departs and the male returns and guards the eggs. He is territorial and drives off male intruders and seldom goes further than from the nest, continuing to remain nearby as the tadpoles develop. Further females are encouraged to lay inside the nest which may come to have several developing clutches of eggs of different ages. The developing larvae are not transported to water, as is the case with the related dendrobatids, but complete their development on land.

Metamorphosis Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some inse ...

into juvenile frogs occurs after about 31 days.

Status

''Colostethus stepheni'' is listed as being of "

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

" in the

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...

. It is assumed to have a large population and wide range and the population appears to be stable.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q28056530 stepheni Amphibians described in 1990 Amphibians of Brazil Amphibians of French Guiana Amphibians of Suriname Taxonomy articles created by Polbot