Pleurodema somuncurense
| Pleurodema somuncurense | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Order: | Anura |
| Family: | Leptodactylidae |
| Genus: | Pleurodema |
| Species: | P. somuncurense |
| Binomial name | |
| Pleurodema somuncurense (Cei, 1969) | |
| Synonyms[2] | |
| |
The El Rincon stream frog, Valcheta frog, or Somuncura frog (Pleurodema somuncurense) is a frog. It lives in Argentina.[2][3][1]
Body
The adult male frog is 28 - 35 mm long from nose to rear end and the adult female frog is 30 - 44 mm. The skin of the frog's back is brown or yellow with some spots. The belly is purple-yellow. There are two circle-shaped marks on the top and bottom of the iris of the eye.[3]
Home
Scientists saw this frog in exactly one place: Somuncura Plateau in Rio Negro Province. This frog spends almost all its time in the water. It lives in streams not far from places where warm water comes out of the ground. It lives in places where the water is not deep or fast and has many plants in it. Scientists have seen it between 500 and 800 m (1,600 and 2,600 ft) above sea level.[2][3][1]
Scientists saw the frog in a protected place: Somuncurá Provincial Reserve.[1]
Young
The female frog lays about 78 eggs at a time. She can have more than one group of eggs each year. She puts the eggs near water plants near places where warm water comes out of the ground. The groups of eggs look like string covered in jelly with one end of the string on a plant root. The eggs are dark in color. The tadpoles take four days to hatch.[3] This frog's young hatches out of its eggs as a tadpole, not a small froglet. The tadpoles swim in the water.[1] The tadpoles can be 40 - 44 mm long. The skin of the tadpole's back is brown-gold and the skin of the belly is red-gray. Some of the fins are clear with spots on them.[3]
Food
The adult frogs eat insects. The frog lives in the water but most of its prey do not. The frogs sometimes look for insects to eat and sometimes sit and wait for food to come near. Scientists have seen them hide in plants.[3] The tadpoles eat mostly plants. They remove dead and decaying things from the places where they live.[1]
Danger
Scientists from the IUCN Red List say this frog is in very big danger of dying out and scientists from the IUCN Green List say that many of the frogs have already died. Fish in the salmon family can eat the frogs, eggs, and tadpoles, and goats and sheep can change the places where the frogs would live. Scientists think that trees from other parts of the world might also change the places where the frogs would live. Scientists found the dangerous fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis on the frogs too. B. dendrobatidis causes the disease chytridiomycosis, which has killed many other frogs.[1] Scientists do not know if chytridiomycosis kills this frog.[3]
First paper
- Cei, J. M. (1969). "The Patagonian telmatobiid fauna of the volcanic Somuncura Plateau of Argentina". Journal of Herpetology. 3: 1–18.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group (2016). "El Rincon Stream Frog: Pleurodema somuncurense". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T20372A85948443. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-1.RLTS.T20372A85948443.en. Retrieved April 6, 2026.
- 1 2 3 Frost, Darrel R. "Pleurodema somuncurense (Cei, 1969)". Amphibian Species of the World, an Online Reference. Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History, New York. Retrieved April 6, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Madeline Ahn (October 31, 2023). Ann T. Chang (ed.). "Pleurodema somuncurense (Cei, 1969)". AmphibiaWeb. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved April 6, 2026.