Pseudophilautus poppiae

Pseudophilautus poppiae is a frog.  It lives in southern Sri Lanka. Scientists have seen it between 1060 and 1270 meters above sea level.

The adult male frog is 21.3 – 24.7 mm long from nose to rear end and the adult female frog is about 26.0 mm long. The top and sides of the head are bright green in color and seem to glow. Some of these frogs have red spots on their green backs. Most have black spots. The sides of the body are yellow in color. The middle of the body and the tops of the back legs are yellow-brown in color. Parts of the mouth are yellow or white in color. The tops of the front legs are yellow green-yellow in color. There are white stripes on the outer edges of the front legs. The inner sides of the front legs are yellow. The belly is yellow.

This frog lives in trees. It lives in cloud forests where the tree branches come together like a roof. It lives in the branches below this roof and in smaller plants called shrubs. People have seen the male frogs sitting on plants 1-3 m above the ground. This frog can also live in places where human beings have planted cardamom plants, but not too many of the plants.

Scientists named this frog for Poppy Valentina Meyer because both her parents supported the Global Amphibian Assessment.

Like other frogs in Pseudophilautus, they grow through direct development: They hatch out of eggs as small frogs. They never swim as tadpoles.

There are fewer of this frog than there were in the past. Scientists say that this is because human beings cut down forests to make towns and cities, to make farms and places for animals to eat grass, and to get wood to build with.

First paper

References

Category:Frogs of Asia