Maria Elena's Glass Frog

About the Maria Elena's Glass Frog

Chimerella mariaelenae is a species of glassfrog that inhabits on the Andean slopes of eastern Ecuador and northeastern Peru, possibly also in the adjacent Colombia. The species was described as new to science by Diego F. Cisneros-Heredia and Roy Wallace McDiarmid.

Collected along a small stream, tributary of the Jambue River, ca. 16 km S from Zamora, Podocarpus National Park (ca. 04º15'S, 78º56'W, 1820 m), on the western slope of Contrafuerte de Tzunantza, Cordillera Oriental, eastern slopes of the Andes, Zamora-Chinchipe Province, Republic of Ecuador.

Chimerella mariaelenae is diagnosed from other species of the family Centrolenidae by the combination of the following characters: (1) vomerine teeth absent; (2) bones white in preservative (unknown in life); (3) parietal peritoneum clear without guanophores in a bib-like fashion; guanophores covering on the pericardial, hepatic and visceral peritonea, except for the clear gall bladder; (4) color in preservative, dorsal and flank surfaces cream with many small dark lavender punctuations and scattered larger dark flecks; (5) webbing absent between fingers I and II, basal between fingers... Wikipedia →