Hyloxalus maquipucuna

Hyloxalus maquipucuna is a frog.  It lives in Ecuador.

Body
The adult male frog can be as big as 21.2 mm long from nose to rear end and the adult female frog can be 23.5–24.1 mm long. There is a big stripe on each side of the body. It is bright yellow in color and it starts at the eye. The skin of the frog's back and sides is black in color. There are two black spots near the rear end and where the front legs meet the body.  The female frog has a white belly. The male frog has a dark belly with lighter marks. The male frog's male organs are white in color.

Name

Scientists named this frog for the place where they found it: Reserva Maquipucuna. "Maquipuncuna" is a Quechua word that means "a valley that looks like two human hands making a cup."

Home

Scientists first saw this frog in a cloud forest in Reserva Maquipucuna in Pichincha. This place is 1800 meters above sea level. They saw it near a stream.

Danger
Scientists saw this frog in 1984, but no scientist has said they have seen it since then. Scientists went to the frog's home to look for it, but they did not find it again. Scientists say this frog is in big danger of dying out and might be all dead now. They think that, if this frog is still alive, there are no more than 50 adults alive.  Scientists think many of these frogs died in the 1980s from changes to the climate and because of the fungal disease chytridiomycosis.

References

Category:Frogs of South America