The sphagnum frog (''Philoria sphagnicolus'') is a

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

Limnodynastidae Limnodynastidae, commonly known as the Australian ground frogs, is a family of frogs found in Australia, New Guinea, and the Aru Islands. They were formerly considered a subfamily of the Myobatrachidae, the other large radiation of terrestrial fr ...

. The species was first described by

John Alexander Moore John Alexander Moore (June 27, 1915 – May 26, 2002) was an American zoology professor emeritus. Early life and education Moore was born to Louise Hammond Blume and George Douglas Moore, a lawyer, in Charles Town, West Virginia in 1915. Four ye ...

in 1958. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and 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 ...

s are subtropical moist upland

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s, subtropical moist

montane forests Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

, and

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

s. They vary in colour from shades of yellow and orange. They usually have irregular black spots that range all over their body. Their main source of diet comes from small insects, usually ants. This species has been classified as endangered in 2004. It is threatened by

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

pathogens In biology, a pathogen ( el, πάθος, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of") in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a germ ...

and

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 ...

. 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 Australia. There have been other recommendations by scientist and other groups made to protect this species. Some of these recommendations are exclude logging around breeding areas, prevent pollution of streams and wetlands, and maintain vegetation and deep-leaf litter around streams.

References

Sphagnum Frog - profile
Philoria Amphibians of Queensland Amphibians of New South Wales Amphibians described in 1958 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Frogs of Australia {{Myobatrachidae-stub