The Copan brook frog (''Duellmanohyla soralia'') 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
Hylidae
Hylidae is a wide-ranging family of frogs commonly referred to as "tree frogs and their allies". However, the hylids include a diversity of frog species, many of which do not live in trees, but are terrestrial or semiaquatic.
Taxonomy and s ...
found in northeastern
Guatemala
Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...
and northwestern
Honduras
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...
, specifically in the
Sierra del Merendón
Sierra del Merendón is a mountain range extending on the eastern border of Guatemala and Honduras. Its south-western border is marked by the Lempa River valley, its northern border by the Motagua River valley. The mountain range has several dif ...
Sierra de Caral
Sierra (Spanish for "mountain range" and "saw", from Latin ''wikt:serra#Latin, serra'') may refer to the following:
Places Mountains and mountain ranges
* Sierra de Juárez, a mountain range in Baja California, Mexico
* Sierra de las Nieves, a ...
, and Sierra Espíritu Santo ranges. The colouring of this species is very distinctive and the specific name ''soralia'' comes from the resemblance of its markings to the vegetative structures on some
crustose
Crustose is a habit of some types of algae and lichens in which the organism grows tightly appressed to a substrate, forming a biological layer. ''Crustose'' adheres very closely to the substrates at all points. ''Crustose'' is found on rocks and ...
lichen
A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.irises. The male has a single vocal sac under the throat, with a pair of vocal slits. The dorsal surface is brown with a well-marked pattern of green, olive, and black, pale-edged spots or blotches. The ventral surface is yellow and the outer surface of the fore limb has a patterning of white streaks.
Distribution
This tree frog 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 mountainous parts of northwest Honduras and northeast Guatemala. Its habitat is moist tropical forest and
cloud forest
A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud c ...
at altitudes of up to above sea level.
Biology
''D. soralia'' is nocturnal and is usually found in or near streams, in low vegetation and on waterside rocks. Breeding takes place between May and July. The tadpoles are a pale yellowish-green colour with iridescent green spots and red eyes. They inhabit shallow pools.
Status
''Duellmanohyla soralia'' is listed as
Endangered
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...
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 ...
. Numbers of frogs are dwindling, and in the
Cusuco National Park
Cusuco National Park is a national park in Honduras. It was established on 1 January 1959 and covers an area of .
Cusuco National Park is a protected area in the Merendon mountains of northwest Honduras. The park ranges from just above sea lev ...
, where the habitat is fully protected, at least part of the cause of the decline is believed to be the disease
chytridiomycosis
Chytridiomycosis ( ) is an infectious disease in amphibians, caused by the chytrid fungi ''Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis'' and ''Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans''. Chytridiomycosis has been linked to dramatic population declines or extincti ...
caused by the fungus ''
Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis
''Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis'' ( ), also known as ''Bd'' or the amphibian chytrid fungus, is a fungus that causes the disease chytridiomycosis in amphibians.
Since its discovery in 1998 by Lee Berger, the disease devastated amphibian popul ...
''. Elsewhere this frog is also threatened by loss of habitat caused by forest clearance for agricultural purposes and by water pollution.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q910835
soralia
Soredia are common reproductive structures of lichens. Lichens reproduce asexually by employing simple fragmentation and production of soredia and isidia. Soredia are powdery propagules composed of fungal hyphae wrapped around cyanobacteria o ...