Web-footed coquÃ
Eleutherodactylus karlschmidti is probably extinct Froschlurch of the genus Antilles Pfeiffrösche ( Eleutherodactylus ). This was traditionally made to the Südfröschen ( Leptodactylidae broader sense ); but recent systematic overviews postulate own family Eleutherodactylidae. The species was endemic to the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. The specific epithet honors karlschmidti the U.S. herpetologists Karl Patterson Schmidt.
Features
Eleutherodactylus karlschmidti after the cane toad was the second largest Froschlurch to Puerto Rico. The largest specimen collected had a head-body length of 80 millimeters. Usually the males and the females were 50 millimeters 48 millimeters long. The back was black or gray with a yellowish mottling or marbling. On the sides of the yellow spots were larger and more intense. Was a narrow light stripe between the eyes. The purple throat pouch ( vocal sac ) of the males was bilobed. The abdomen was yellowish - white with a gray to black marbling. The toe discs were very large. Eleutherodactylus karlschmidti was the only species of the genus Eleutherodactylus in which the toes were completely webbed.
Distribution and habitat
The distribution area of Eleutherodactylus karlschmidti covered the Bosque Nacional El Yunque in northeastern Puerto Rico, on the Bosque Estatal Carite in Central Puerto Rico and on the west coast between Maricao and Mayaguez. He lived in mountain streams and rocky mountain streams in closed, semi-dry forests at altitudes between 45-630 meters.
Way of life
Not much is known about the life of this kind. The diet consisted of arachnids, millipedes, molluscs, crustaceans and insects, which probably (Diptera ) were preferred.
The males were mostly observed on boulders on the shore or in the water falls, the females in hollow logs over streams. The loud, creaky mating call of the males consisted of a series of eight tones, which had similarities with bleating or barking. He was mainly to listen between dusk and midnight.
The spawn was stored in crevices or on the bare granite rocks. The development did not have a tadpole stage instead, but directly within the egg membrane. It slipped fully developed young frogs from eggs.
Extinction
The disappearance of Eleutherodactylus karlschmidti is probably due to a combination of climate change and the fungal disease chytridiomycosis. In 1976, the species was last detected in the Bosque Nacional El Yunque; later, she was sought in vain. Officially the nature nor as " critically endangered " ( threatened with extinction ) is performed, but it is considered very likely that it no longer exists.