"Litoria" castanea

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"Litoria" castanea

Critically endangered, possibly extinct  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Hylidae
Genus: "Litoria"
Species:
"L." castanea
Binomial name
"Litoria" castanea
Synonyms[2]
  • Hyla castanea Steindachner, 1867
  • Litoria flavipunctata Courtice and Grigg, 1975
  • Ranoidea castanea (Steindachner, 1867)

"Litoria" castanea, also known as the yellow-spotted tree frog,

endemic
to south-eastern Australia.

Taxonomy

The placement of "Litoria" castanea is considered as

Litoria aurea species complex.[2]

Description

"Litoria" castanea is distinguished by cream markings on its thighs. Its overall colour is pale green and the dark to black spots are highlighted by the bronze patches. The toes are entirely webbed.

Distribution and habitat

"Litoria" castanea is

endemic to the New England Tablelands bioregion of south-eastern Australia.[1][4]

The species favours permanent water bodies and its natural habitats are temperate grassland, rivers, intermittent rivers, swamps, freshwater lakes, intermittent freshwater lakes, freshwater marshes, intermittent freshwater marshes, and ponds.[1]

Conservation

No recorded sighting had been made since 1980, and by 2004 the species was considered as possibly extinct. The reasons behind its drastic decline are unclear, but the disease chytridiomycosis is suspected to have played a major role.[1] However, in late 2009 New South Wales Fisheries field scientist Luke Pearce located a surviving population of the frogs.[5] Scientists acted quickly to establish a small "insurance" colony. Soon after, the wild colony was eradicated due to two consecutive floods and an outbreak of chytrid fungus. Following a breeding program at Sydney's Taronga Zoo, in early 2018, a colony of yellow-spotted bell frogs was released in a secret location in the New South Wales' southern tablelands.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group (2022). "Litoria castanea". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2022: e.T12145A78435992.
  2. ^ a b c ""Litoria" castanea (Steindachner, 1867) | Amphibian Species of the World". amphibiansoftheworld.amnh.org. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  3. . New England swamp frog
  4. ^ "Litoria castanea". Australian Faunal Directory. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  5. ^ "'Extinct' frog species found alive after 30 years". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 4 March 2010.
  6. ^ "Taronga Zoo releases colony of critically endangered bell frogs". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 27 March 2018.

External links