''Eleutherodactylus dolomedes'' (common names: Hispaniolan ventriloquial frog, Hedge's robber frog, Hedges' robber 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

Eleutherodactylidae The Eleutherodactylidae are a family of direct-developing frogs native to northern South America, the Caribbean, and southernmost North America. They are sometimes known under the common name rain frogs. Formerly the subfamily Eleutherodactylina ...

. 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 the

Massif de la Hotte The Massif de la Hotte is a mountain range in southwestern Haiti, on the Tiburon Peninsula. About 2.5 million years ago, Massif de la Hotte was separated from the Massif de la Selle by a deep, wide sea channel, and formed a separate island. This r ...

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

Description

The

type series In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes the ...

consists of three adult males that measure in snout–vent length; the heaviest specimen weighs . The snout is subacuminate and short. The tympanum is small and round. All fingers and toes have expanded tips but no webbing. Skin is dorsally and laterally moderately tuberculate; the venter grades from being smooth anteriorly to tuberculate posteriorly. The dorsal ground color is orange-brown or orange-tan. There is one scapular and one midbody brown, ill-defined chevron. Narrow, light, dorsolateral stripes may be present. Limbs are marked with gray bars. Males have a single, external

vocal sac The vocal sac is the flexible membrane of skin possessed by most male frogs and toads. The purpose of the vocal sac is usually as an amplification of their mating or advertisement call. The presence or development of the vocal sac is one way o ...

. The male advertisement call is and emitted at long intervals (about two minutes), making it difficult to find the calling frog. The call itself is a rapid, seven-note, high-pitched series of "chirps", with the dominant frequency of about 4.7 kHz.

Habitat and conservation

''Eleutherodactylus dolomedes'' is an

arboreal Arboreal locomotion is the Animal locomotion, locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally, but others are exclusively arboreal. Th ...

species inhabiting high-elevation

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 an elevation of

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 types were found at night when they were calling in trees some above the ground. It is only known from one site within the

Pic Macaya National Park Pic Macaya National Park (french: Parc National Pic Macaya) is one of two national parks of the Republic of Haiti. It is located in the country's southern peninsula, within the Massif de la Hotte. Featuring the country's last stand of virgin cl ...

. However, there is no active management for conservation, and habitat loss continues in the park.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eleutherodactylus Dolomedes

dolomedes ''Dolomedes'' is a genus of large spiders of the family Pisauridae. They are also known as fishing spiders, raft spiders, dock spiders or wharf spiders. Almost all ''Dolomedes'' species are semiaquatic, with the exception of the tree-dwelling ...

Amphibians of Haiti Endemic fauna of Haiti Amphibians described in 1992 Taxa named by Stephen Blair Hedges Taxa named by Richard Thomas (herpetologist) Taxonomy articles created by Polbot