The Kalinga narrowmouth toad (''Kaloula kalingensis'') 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

Microhylidae The Microhylidae, commonly known as narrow-mouthed frogs, are a geographically widespread family of frogs. The 683 species are in 63 genera and 11 subfamilies, which is the largest number of genera of any frog family. Evolution A molecular phyl ...

. 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 ...

to the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. 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 or tropical moist lowland

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 or tropical moist montane forests,

arable land Arable land (from the la, arabilis, "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for th ...

, pastureland, and

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Th ...

s. It is threatened 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 ...

Description

The Kalinga narrowmouth toad is a plump frog with a rounded body and short head. It has a short, truncated snout, nostrils on the side of the head and easily discernible

tympani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionall ...

. There are

tubercle In anatomy, a tubercle (literally 'small tuber', Latin for 'lump') is any round nodule, small eminence, or warty outgrowth found on external or internal organs of a plant or an animal. In plants A tubercle is generally a wart-like projection ...

s on the snout and face, on the back and on the flanks. The skin on the underparts is granular except for the chest which is smooth. The fingers have white tubercles underneath and small pads at the tips and the toes are slightly webbed. The snout-to-vent length is about . The dorsal surface is bluish-black with reddish-brown markings on head, sides and limbs. The underparts are brown mottled with white.

Distribution and habitat

This frog is endemic to the Philippines. It is known from the Cordillera Central Mountains on the island of

Luzon Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...

and possibly from the Sierra Madres Mountains. It is also found on

Polillo Island Polillo () is an island in the northeastern region of the Philippine archipelago. It is the largest island and the namesake of the Polillo Islands. It is separated from Luzon Island by the Polillo Strait and forms the northern side of Lamon Bay ...

and

Palaui Island The Palaui Island Protected Landscape and Seascape is an island that is a protected area and national park in the municipality of Santa Ana in Cagayan, Philippines. It is located off the northeastern extremity of Luzon Island. Geography Palaui ...

. Its habitat is lowland or lower mountain rainforests and their fringes where it is largely found on the forest floor and in rain-filled holes in trees and other temporary water bodies. In the breeding season, males call from holes in trees and other locations several metres off the forest floor and from under logs. The call is a loud, slightly undulating, trill which has been described as "Bwop!". Divergent varieties that may turn out to be new species (''Kaloula'' sp. nov.) have been found in

Panay Panay is the sixth-largest and fourth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total land area of and has a total population of 4,542,926 as of 2020 census. Panay comprises 4.4 percent of the entire population of the country. The City o ...

( Sibalom Natural Park) and eastern

.Blackburn, D. C., Siler, C. D., Diesmos, A. C., McGuire, J. A., Cannatella, D. C. and Brown, R. M. (2013), An adaptive radiation of frogs in a southeast Asian island archipelago. Evolution, 67: 2631–2646.

Status

Its total range is smaller than and within that range its populations are fragmented. The major threats it faces are the degradation of its forest habitat but it is unknown whether the total numbers of individuals is in decline or not.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1593891 Kaloula Amphibians described in 1922 Endemic fauna of the Philippines Fauna of Luzon Amphibians of the Philippines Taxonomy articles created by Polbot