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November 27, 2018 at 09:09
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27 November 2018, 9:09 a.m. updated
Venezuelan researchers found that endemic species of apo survived, threatened with deforestation of the habitat, and Venezuelan consolidates it as a country with the greatest frog.
The small animal lives in the forest of Sierra de Aro, in the northern state of Yaracuy, and was named Mannophryne molinai, César Molina (1960-2015), postulence for confession, Venezuelan herpetologist, amphibians and reptiles.
It is a necklace with a frog (throat black band); The largest ones reach 2.5 centimeters AFP Miguel Matta, the author of the research.
Females are slightly larger than men and the background colors are brown, gray, and dark green.
The man's belly is white and throat gray; Women show a more ventralally attractive color, with a yellow throat and black collar, and a partially tinted white abdomen yellow, Matta described.
Another feature is the sound emitted by men, consisting of many individual reminders, he added.
Although its distribution is wider in the mountains, although today its presence is only known at the point of La Rondona.
First copies Mannophryne molinai They were found in a nearby stream in 2012. In principle he thought he was another inhabitant Mannophryne herminae, Which is widely spread in the mountains of the Venezuelan coastline, but the uncertainty persisted.
Since gender genus species are difficult to distinguish, more research is required to ensure that it was a decentralized species, explains Matta.
The field work lasted for several years and the description of the species was necessary, a comparison of the quantities recorded by them, and a sharp comparison between well-known 19 other species of the genus. Mannophryne.
The research was published in the journal revista científica Zootaxa.
Matta, from the University of Venezuela, and herpetologist Enrique La Marca, from the University of Los Andes, and Fernando Rojas-Runjaic, directed at La Salle Natural History Museum.
Threatened species
The discovery of a new species is always good news for science, but in that case Mannophryne It contrasts with its weakness in deforestation, Mattai said.
Sierra de Aroa is still protected at the northern end, and the rest of the territories, where amphibians have been found, support strong livestock farming and agriculture, warns the scientist.
The researcher stressed that deforestation increases the temperature and diminishes the humidity and depends on the species of streams that the risk of disappearing the body of the water is disappearing or contaminated.
Diet Mannophryne molinai It has not yet been described, but its genus species are insect, fire and, occasionally, they feed on small crustaceans.
This finding adds 20 species of the genus Mannophryne Identified, endemic to northern Venezuelan mountain systems 18.
Half of them are classified as endangered by the International Protection Union (IUCN).
"This finding shows that Venezuelan amphibian fauna is still in a phase of discovery and the position of the country is allowed between eight frogs in the world with the highest diversity," said La Marca.
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