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''Limnonectes larvaepartus'' is a species of fanged frog in the family Dicroglossidae endemic to northern and western
''Limnonectes larvaepartus'' is a species of fanged frog in the family Dicroglossidae endemic to northern and western Sulawesi
Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...
, Indonesia. It is unique in that it has internal fertilization and gives live birth to tadpoles. Other frog species that have live birth produce froglets.
Discovery
The frog was first mentioned in 1994 under thenomen nudum
In taxonomy, a ''nomen nudum'' ('naked name'; plural ''nomina nuda'') is a designation which looks exactly like a scientific name of an organism, and may have originally been intended to be one, but it has not been published with an adequate descr ...
"''Limnonectes ovovivipar''", which refers to ovovivipary
Ovoviviparity, ovovivipary, ovivipary, or aplacental viviparity is a term used as a "bridging" form of reproduction between egg-laying oviparous and live-bearing viviparous reproduction. Ovoviviparous animals possess embryos that develop insi ...
, whereby the tadpoles hatch from their eggs while still inside their mother. In 2014, it was formally named and described by Djoko Iskandar, Ben Evans, and Jim McGuire. Its 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 ...
is derived from larvae
A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle.
The ...
+ Latin ''partus'' (give birth). The authors collected over 100 specimens for their study and witnessed either direct birth of tadpoles or tadpoles in the oviducts
The oviduct in mammals, is the passageway from an ovary. In human females this is more usually known as the Fallopian tube or uterine tube. The eggs travel along the oviduct. These eggs will either be fertilized by spermatozoa to become a zygote, ...
on 19 occasions. They also observed free-living tadpoles in stream-side puddles.
In 2015, the International Institute for Species Exploration
The International Institute for Species Exploration (IISE) is a research institute located in Syracuse, New York. Its mission is to improve taxonomical exploration and the cataloging of new species of flora and fauna. Since 2008, IISE has publ ...
names it as one of the "Top 10 New Species" for new species discovered in 2014.
Characteristics
The average male size (from tip of snout tocloaca
In animal anatomy, a cloaca ( ), plural cloacae ( or ), is the posterior orifice that serves as the only opening for the digestive, reproductive, and urinary tracts (if present) of many vertebrate animals. All amphibians, reptiles and birds, a ...
) is , while the average female size is . Within Sulawesi, it has been found in the Northern Peninsula and on the western edge of the central core. The dorsum is typically brownish-grey, but can also be reddish-brown or golden-tan. The underside may be yellowish or cream, with a dark spot often marking the upper end of the tibia.
Females produce approximately 100 eggs, which hatch as tadpoles in the oviducts and are probably retained there until exhausting their supply of yolk. Apart from yolk, the oviductal tadpoles may also feed on feces and dead siblings. The tadpoles are birthed into slow-moving streams. They feature well-developed tails, mouthparts and pigmentation at birth. After birth, tadpoles likely self-feed even before metamorphosis
Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some inse ...
into froglets. The oviducts have no obvious specializations to accommodate the tadpoles, raising the possibility that the unique breeding mode is the result of a simple behavioral change in fertilization method. It is not known how internal fertilization occurs, as the male frog has no obvious intromittent organ
An intromittent organ is any external organ of a male organism that is specialized to deliver sperm during copulation. Intromittent organs are found most often in terrestrial species, as most non-mammalian aquatic species fertilize their eggs e ...
.
References
External links
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q18701640 larvaepartus Amphibians of Sulawesi Endemic fauna of Indonesia Amphibians described in 2014