''Hyalinobatrachium pallidum'' (common name: Guacharaquita glass frog, in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

''ranita de cristal pálida'') is a species of

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" ''Triadobatrachus'' is ...

in the family Centrolenidae. 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 else ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. It is known from its type locality, Guacharaquita between

La Grita La Grita is a town in the north west of Táchira state, Venezuela. It has a population of 80.000. Located in an Andean valley, La Grita has a beautiful natural setting and fertile land. The town includes colonial style houses and open plazas. Th ...

and Páramo de La Negra in the

Táchira Táchira State ( es, Estado Táchira, ) is one of the 24 states of Venezuela. The state capital is San Cristóbal. Táchira State covers a total surface area of and as of the 2011 census, had a population of 1,168,908. At the end of the 19t ...

state, and from a number of sites in the

Sierra de Perijá Sierra (Spanish for "mountain range" and "saw", from 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 mountain range i ...

Zulia Zulia State ( es, Estado Zulia, ; Wayuu: ''Mma’ipakat Suuria'') is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. The state capital is Maracaibo. As of the 2011 census, it has a population of 3,704,404, the largest population among Venezuela's states. It ...

state. Its altitudinal range is

asl American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that is express ...

. There is also an unconfirmed record from San Isidro in the Barinas state.

Description

Males measure and females in snout–vent length. The

pericardium The pericardium, also called pericardial sac, is a double-walled sac containing the heart and the roots of the great vessels. It has two layers, an outer layer made of strong connective tissue (fibrous pericardium), and an inner layer made o ...

is light golden. Many individuals from the Sierra de Perijá have a number of irregular black flecks on the dorsum, head, and dorsal surfaces of the limbs.

Habitat and conservation

In the Sierra de Perijá, ''Hyalinobatrachium pallidum'' was abundant and reproductively active at two localities with small fast-flowing creeks surrounded by primary cloud forest and abundant stream-side vegetation. It was scarce at a third locality, a small creek in secondary forest with shaded coffee plantations. The Guacharaquita population was considered almost extirpated 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 ...

in the assessment by the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of nat ...

(IUCN) in 2004. However, Rojas-Runjaic and colleagues suggest that the conservation status of this species should be reassessed in light of broader distribution than was known at the time of the assessment.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q289385

pallidum The globus pallidus (GP), also known as paleostriatum or dorsal pallidum, is a subcortical structure of the brain. It consists of two adjacent segments, one external, known in rodents simply as the globus pallidus, and one internal, known in rod ...

Amphibians of the Andes Amphibians of Venezuela Endemic fauna of Venezuela Taxa named by Juan A. Rivero Amphibians described in 1985 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot