''Cryptotriton monzoni'' is a species of

salamander Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All ten ...

in the family

Plethodontidae Plethodontidae, or lungless salamanders, are a family of salamanders. Most species are native to the Western Hemisphere, from British Columbia to Brazil, although a few species are found in Sardinia, Europe south of the Alps, and South Korea. In ...

. 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 Guatemala and known only from near its type locality, Cerro del Mono near La Unión,

Zacapa Department Zacapa () is one of the 22 departments of Guatemala. It lies in eastern Guatemala with its capital in the city of Zacapa, approximately 112 kilometers (70 miles) from Guatemala City. Geography To the north lie the departments of Alta Verapaz a ...

. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

''monzoni'' honors José Monzón, a Guatemalan entomologist who helped the authors with the fieldwork. Common name Monzon's hidden salamander has been coined for it.

Description

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 ...

is an adult female measuring in snout–vent length. The tail length is . The snout is broadly rounded and the eyes are protuberant. The head is just slightly wider than the neck. The

parotoid gland The parotoid gland (alternatively, paratoid gland) is an external skin gland on the back, neck, and shoulder of toads and some frogs and salamanders. It can secrete a number of milky alkaloid substances (depending on the species) known collective ...

s are weakly developed. The limbs are relatively long. Both the fingers and the toes are about moderately extensively webbed and have sub-digital pads. The dorsum is brown and has bluish flecks. The

iris Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants *Iris (color), an ambiguous color term Iris or IRIS may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional enti ...

is copper.

Habitat and conservation

The type locality of ''Cryptotriton monzoni'' is a loud forest

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

. The holotype was found in a

bromeliad The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa, ...

about three metres above the forest floor. ''Cryptotriton monzoni'' is apparently a rare species. Its threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

caused by logging and agricultural encroachment.

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 ...

might also be a threat (a specimen of '' Bolitoglossa conanti'' was infected at the type locality).

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q383598 monzoni Critically endangered fauna of North America Endemic fauna of Guatemala Amphibians of Guatemala Taxa named by Jonathan A. Campbell Amphibians described in 1998 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot