''Physalaemus deimaticus'' 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

Leptodactylidae The southern frogs form the Leptodactylidae, a name that comes from Greek meaning a bird or other animal having slender toes. They are a diverse Family (biology), family of frogs that most likely diverged from other hyloidea, hyloids during the C ...

. 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 ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and only known from its type locality in

Jaboticatubas Jaboticatubas is a municipality in the state of Minas Gerais in the Southeast region of Brazil. See also *List of municipalities in Minas Gerais This is a list of the municipalities in the state of Minas Gerais (MG), located in the Southeast R ...

, Serra do Cipó,

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

. 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 ...

''deimaticus'' is derived from Greek ''deimos'' fror "fear" and refers to the defensive display of this frog, probably aimed at scaring predators. Common names Jaboticatubas dwarf frog and frightening foam froglet have been coined for it.

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 specimens. 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 other female type is of similar size, whereas the male type measures in snout–vent length. The overall appearance is robust. The snout is short. No tympanum is visible. The fingers and the toes are long and have neither webbing nor expanded tips. The dorsum has granulose skin and is light gray to light reddish brown in color. The interorbital stripe, middorsal stripe that splits in two posteriorly, and lateral bands are dark brown. The glands are black with white margins.

Behavior

When threatened, this species performs a "deimatic" display in which it swells up its body, lowers its head, and raises its rump, such that the two large inguinal glands resembling eye spots are exposed. Similar display is known from ''

Physalaemus nattereri ''Physalaemus nattereri'' (common name: Cuyaba dwarf frog) is a frog native to central and southeastern Brazil and eastern Bolivia and Paraguay. Description It has two "false eyes" on its rear. The 3–4 cm frog lifts its rear end when thre ...

''.

Habitat and conservation

''Physalaemus deimaticus'' is terrestrial frog known from rocky areas at about

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 ...

. It probably breeds in water. It is not assumed to adapt well to anthropogenic disturbance, and could be threatened by fire, expanding human settlements, and disturbance resulting from tourism. It might occur with the

Serra do Cipó National Park The Serra do Cipó National Park ( pt, Parque Nacional da Serra do Cipó) is a national park in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Location The park is in the Cerrado biome. It covers . It was created by decree 90.223 of 25 September 1984, modifi ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2238329 deimaticus Endemic fauna of Brazil Amphibians of Brazil Amphibians described in 1988 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot