Juvenile, 3,873′, San Luis Potosi, Mexico
Subadults in cave, 3,873′, San Luis Potosi, Mexico
ADORNED ROBBER FROG
Craugastor decoratus – Taylor 1942
Craugastor decoratus decoratus – Taylor 1942
IDENTIFICATION:
DISTRIBUTION:
HABITAT:
Cloud Forest Habitat, 3,873′, San Luis Potosi, Mexico
Lower Cloud Forest Habitat, 3,500′, Hidalgo, Mexico
Cloud Forest Habitat, 7,286′, Veracruz, Mexico
NATURAL HISTORY:
TAXONOMY:
In the Eleutherodactylus alfredi group as defined by Lynch and Duellman (1997).
TYPE:
PERSONAL NOTES:
My personal experience with Craugastor decoratus decoratus is limited to a single locality in extreme southwestern San Luis Potosi. In May, 2003 I found this species to be abundant in a series of caves (and their immediate vicinity) located within a modified cloud forest habitat. Adult frogs were vocalizing from protected sites in boulder jumbles at the cave’s entrances, and a few subadult individuals were found beneath flat, mossy rocks immediately outside the caves in a small sotano (sinkhole).
Subsequent visits to this same cave system during the wet season has yielded no Eleutherodactylid frogs. At first I believed this may have been an artifact of a season shift in activity and utilization of this specific microhabitat; however, this may not be the case. It became apparent that between my visits there had been a bonfire crated within the main chamber of one cave. Burned tires, trash and charred bones of cattle had been torched and the result was a thick layer of soot throughout the interior of the cave – both walls and ceiling. Whether or not the toxic smoke from this fire is responsible for the extirpation of both Craugastor decoratus and Chiropterotriton magnipes from this cave system has yet to be determined, but it surely had a devastating effect on a large percentage of the populations of both species. Upcoming field work in 2006 might shed some light on the status of the cave fauna at this particular site.
In 2006 I again returned to this site and found a marked improvement in the appearance of the cave. Much of the accumulated soot had been washed off of the ceiling of the cave by seepage. At one entrance to the cave I found many adult C. d. decoratus, a single S. baudinii and one Lepidophyma occulor. Of greater note was that finally after years of searching, we found one Chiropterotriton magnipes! This was the first magnipes to be found in the wild since the 1970′s. Also of note is that while C. augusti is abundant on adjacent hillsides, we have not yet found evidence of them in this cave system.
CONSERVATION STATUS:
IUCN Red List status for this species is currently “Vulnerable” due to the continued degradation and transformation of it’s cloud forest habitat, and highly fragmented distribution. Mexico protects C. decoratus under the “Special Protection” category.
REFERENCES:
Campbell, J. A., W. W. Lamar, and D. M. Hillis. 1989. A New Species of Diminutive Eleutherodactylus (Leptodactylidae) from Oaxaca, Mexico. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 102:491-499.
Canseco-Marquez, L. and E. N. Smith. 2004. A Diminutive Species of Eleutherodactylus (Anura: Leptodactylidae), of the alfredi Group, from the Sierra Negra of Puebla, Mexico. Herpetologica 60(3):358-363.