Fort Dauphin Digging Frog

About the Fort Dauphin Digging Frog

Plethodontohyla alluaudi is a frog belonging to the Madagascar-endemic subfamily Cophylinae of the family Microhylidae. It is endemic to southeastern Madagascar. It is a terrestrial and fossorial frog that occurs in rainforest, including littoral forest. Despite being locally abundant, it is a difficult frog to find.

The species was originally described under the name Dyscophus alluaudi by Mocquard in 1901, originally described from the locality 'Fort Dauphin'—probably meaning the general area around Tôlanaro rather than the city itself. It was transferred to the genus Plethodontohyla in 1926, where it remained until Guibé transferred it to Mantipus in 1974, but he returned it to Plethodontohyla in 1978. The taxon Plethodontohyla laevis from further north on the east coast of Madagascar was synonymised with the species P. alluaudi in 1991. Blommers-Schlösser assigned a specimen from Mandraka in eastern Madagascar to this species, and subsequent authors interpreted specimens from the area around Andasibe as belonging to this species as well. Genetic sequences from specimens collected in this area were later used as the reference material for the species (summarised in... Wikipedia →