Life male holotype of Pristimantis attenboroughi. (Image by Dr. Edgar Leh)
What do Gabonese flowering plants, flightless weavils and a black-eyed satyr butterfly species all have in common? All these recently discovered species were named in honour of the British broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough. But no amphibians to date bore the famous BBC broadcaster’s name. The honour goes to a newly discovered freshbelly frog species in the Peruvian Andes. The tiny amphibian bears the name Pristimantis attenboroughi, or Attenborough’s Rubber Frog. The frogs reside in the Pui Pui Protected Forest. Females tend to be slightly larger than males, but no specimen seen by the researchers exceeded 23 millimeters in length.
Authors:
Edgar Lehr, Rudolf von May
Corresponding author:
Edgar Lehr, Department of Biology, Illinois Wesleyan University, Email: elehr@iwu.edu
Original paper published in ZooKeys on March 7, 2017.
