Plectrohyla ephemera
CERRO LAS FLORES GOLDEN TREEFROG
Plectrohyla ephemera - Meik, Canseco-Márquez, Smith and Campbell 2005
IDENTIFICATION:
DISTRIBUTION:
Currently, Plectrohyla ephemera is known only from elevations of 1100-1200 meters on Cerro Las Flores, an isolated outpost of the Sierra Mixe uplift in east-central Oaxaca, Mexico.
HABITAT:
This species has been found in ravines along streams flowing through cloud forest on a single mountain - Cerro Las Flores. This habitat exists between 1100-1200m El.
NATURAL HISTORY:
Plectrohyla ephemera, like other members of the Plectrohyla bistincta group is presumed to be a stream-breeding frog. It is not known whether this species has the ability to vocalize, but the holotype (an adult male) lacked vocal slits. As is the case with many Atlantic slope stream-breeding Hylids, P. ephemera probably breeds during the dry season when streams are quiet and less susceptible to sudden flooding.
TAXONOMY:
Meik Et. Al. (2005) tentatively place P. ephemera in the Plectrohyla bistincta group. It is thought to be most closely related to Plectrohyla calthula, found to the north of Cerro Las Flores in the Sierra Mixe.
TYPE:
Described as Hyla ephemera by Meik Et. Al. in 2005. Holotype: MZFC 17049. Type Locality: “obtained between Santa Maria Guienagati and Lachidola, 1100m (16.759ºN, 95.461ºW), north slope of Cerro Las Flores, Oaxaca, Mexico”. Collected by E. N. Smith and L. Canseco-Márquez on 7 April 2003.
PERSONAL NOTES:
I have not traveled to Cerro Las Flores, thus have no experience with this recently-described species.
CONSERVATION STATUS:
Although no IUCN Red List status exists for this species, it is probably threatened due to it’s presumed small population size, small natural range, and possible infection of the only-known population by Chytrid fungus.
REFERENCES:
Faivovich, J., C. F. B. Haddad, P. C. A. Garcia, D. R. Frost, J. A. Campbell, and W. C. Wheeler. 2005. Systematic review of the frog family Hylidae, with special reference to Hylinae: phylogenetic analysis and taxonomic revision. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 294:1-240.
Meik, J. M., L. Canseco-Márquez, E. N. Smith, and J. A. Campbell. 2005. A new species of Hyla (Anura: Hylidae) from Cerro Las Flores, Oaxaca, Mexico. Zootaxa 1046:17-27.