Tungara frog

Tungara Frog

The Tungara Frog ( Engystomops pustulosus, formerly Physalaemus pustulosus ), also called Augankrötchen, is a frog of the subfamily Leiuperinae within the family Leptodactylidae.

Features

The males are up to 3 centimeters long, the females are slightly larger. The warty skin shows various shades of beige over dark brown to olive green. The numerous pustules and warts give the Tungara - frog the appearance of a toad and have led to the species name pustulosus ( warty ). They may be arranged on the back in longitudinal rows, or zigzag. In most cases, they are irregularly distributed on the skin. Also on the tympanum sit small warts.

The Tungara Frogs do not have teeth to the jawbone. The first finger is longer than the second, in this way.

Dissemination

Tungara the Frog The main distribution area is located in South and Central America. It extends from the Orinoco River in the south to Mexico in the north and includes Belize, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico and the islands of Trinidad and Tobago.

The Central American distribution area was populated from South America already ten to six million years ago, when there was no land bridge between the two American continents. Through the biogeographic separation developed allopatric two genetically different groups, however, can not be regarded as separate species. After the completion of the land bridge some three million years ago there was in Panama and Costa Rica back to a mixing of the two groups, which could be detected by molecular genetic studies on frogs from the Western Panama and northwestern Costa Rica. By glacial events occurred but later renewed interruptions and gaps in the distribution area.

The frog is found mainly in the lowlands. This includes subtropical and tropical savannas and seasonally wet or flooded grasslands, wetlands and pastures as well as open or degraded forests with ditches and ponds.

Way of life

The advertising behavior of some species and the responses of females to the calls of the males during the mating season were studied. Males call from the night of the water, the sound sequence is of great complexity.

During mating in the water, the female emits a protein that is beaten by the male to a foam. This foam nest takes the fertilized eggs to hatch on the tadpoles. It ensures the survival of the brood at a case by case drought. Different proteins in the foam to protect the eggs from desiccation and direct sunlight, and parasite infestation. The tadpoles hatch usually after four days, but the foam can meet at a deceleration of development up to two weeks its function.

Ranaspumin protein -2 from the foam may be used as a carrier to bring artificially photosynthesis outside cells started. This new method for energy production won the 2011 Earth Award.

Endangering

The Tungara Frog is very common in northern South America and in Central America. Less commonly, it occurs in the southwest of the Mexican state of Campeche and Belize. Deposits in Guyana are likely but not confirmed officially. Because of their frequency and the large distribution area of the frog by the IUCN, the populations are considered stable and not at risk.

Taxonomy and systematics

The Tungara Frog ( Engystomops pustulosus ) belonged to the genus Physalaemus long time and was spun off along with the other species of the Physalaemus - pustulosus group as a separate genus in 2005. This was named after a 1872 Engystomops described by Jiménez- de -la- Espada genus, which at the time only the petersi belonged to the Tungara Frog closely related species Engystomops until it was incorporated in 1970 in the genus Physalaemus.

In 2006, the large group of Südfrösche ( Leptodactylidae family in a broader sense ) has been split into several, partly newly opened family. Together with other genera Engystomops was placed in the family of Leiuperidae, but this was reintegrated later than subfamily in the Leptodactylidae family (in the narrow sense).