Helena's marsupial frog (''Gastrotheca helenae'') is a species of

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...

in the family

Hemiphractidae The Hemiphractidae are a family of frogs from South and Central America. Previously, this group had been classified as a subfamily (Hemiphractinae) under family Hylidae. More recent research classifies these genera into their own family, or som ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

to the Páramo de Tamá on the Venezuelan-Colombian border and occurs in

Apure Apure State (, ) is one of the 23 States of Venezuela, states of Venezuela. Its territory formed part of the provinces of Mérida (state), Mérida, Maracaibo, and Barinas (state), Barinas, in accordance with successive territorial ordinations ...

and

Táchira Táchira State (, ) is one of the 23 States of Venezuela, states of Venezuela. The state capital is San Cristóbal, Táchira, San Cristóbal. Táchira State covers a total surface area of and as of the 2011 census, had a population of 1,168,9 ...

states of

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

and

Norte de Santander Department Norte de Santander (Spanish for Northern Santander) () is a departments of Colombia, department of northeastern Colombia. It is in the north of the country, bordering Venezuela. Its capital is Cúcuta, one of the country's major cities. Norte ...

on the Cordillera Oriental of

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. It is named after Helen Gaige, an American herpetologist.

Description

''Gastrotheca helenae'' is a large marsupial frog. The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

, an adult female, measured in snout–vent length. The dorsum is smooth and bright green in color; the sides and belly are reddish brown with white markings. The belly and throat are quite rugose. The toes are about half-webbed whereas the fingers have only traces of webbing.

Habitat and conservation

Its natural

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

s are

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, Montane forest, montane, Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist forest characteri ...

s and

páramo Páramo () may refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountain Range, South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrower ...

at elevations of

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

. It is much more easily heard than seen. The species occurs in the

Tamá National Natural Park The Tamá National Natural Park () is a national park located in the Tamá Massif of the Andean Region of Colombia, between the municipalities Toledo and Herrán, in the department of Norte de Santander, in the northeastern part of the Eastern R ...

in Colombia and

El Tamá National Park The El Tamá National Park () It is a protected area with the status of a national park that is located between the Andes and plains of Venezuela. It protects part of the Tamá Massif. It has an area of and is located in the states of Táchira (1 ...

in Venezuela. Threats to it are unknown. It was abundant in the mid-1980s when last surveyed.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1594401 helenae Amphibians of the Andes Amphibians of Colombia Amphibians of Venezuela Apure Norte de Santander Department Táchira Amphibians described in 1944 Taxa named by Emmett Reid Dunn Taxonomy articles created by Polbot