AWeb News

From the AWeb site:

"A tiny new frog (the Old World's smallest) has been discovered living and breeding inside pitcher plants on Borneo. Das and Haas (2010) describe the new species, Microhyla nepenthicola, in the journal Zootaxa. Adult male frogs measure between 10.6 and 12.8 mm in snout-vent length (SVL); new metamorphs measure just 3.5 mm on average (one-third the diameter of a pea). Although pitcher plants are carnivorous and consume insects that fall in, Microhyla nepenthicola tadpoles suffer no ill effects from developing inside the pitcher's digestive liquid.

from the AmphibiaWeb site:

Can amphibians in the wild be saved from the deadly fungal disease chytridiomycosis, using bioaugmentation of naturally occurring amphibian anti-fungal skin bacteria? This summer will be the first test, in California.

From AmphibiaWeb News:

What distinguishes invasive amphibian species at the earliest stage of becoming invasive?

From AmphibiaWeb News:

Can chytridiomycosis be treated in the wild?

From the AWeb Site:

CalPhotos

A new paper from Acta Zoologica (Natale et al. 2010) reports that the tadpole of Ceratophrys ornata makes distress calls underwater, the first example of any larva communicating by sound underwater, and the first known of any vertebrate larva to make sounds.

From the AWeb site:

The Smithsonian is partnering with George Mason University to offer a course in amphibian monitoring and conservation next month (May 16-28), at the National Zoo's Conservation and Research Center in Virginia. The course will include lectures, lab and field exercises, and case studies.

From the AWeb site:

Neurergus kaiseri, the Lorestan newt, has just been granted protection from international trade under CITES Appendix I, as of March 21, 2010.

From the AmphibiaWeb Site:

Atrazine is the most common pesticide contaminant in ground, surface, and drinking water. It also is a potent endocrine disruptor at very low concentrations across vertebrate taxa. In a new PNAS paper, Hayes et al. (2010) showed that atrazine exposure during larval development at levels below the EPA drinking water standard can profoundly affect male Xenopus laevis (African Clawed Frog) sexual function and morphology. In the most severe cases, male frogs were completely feminized morphologically and behaviorally, producing eggs and mating with other males.

From AmphibiaWeb

The California tiger salamander (Ambystoma californiense) has finally been granted protected status under the California Endangered Species Act, by a 3-2 vote of the California Fish and Game Commission on March 3, 2010. This native Californian species depends on ephemeral vernal pools for breeding, 95% of which have been lost in recent decades.

The first known monogamous amphibian species, based on genetic data, is Dendrobates imitator (Brown et al. 2010) as reported in a paper in the April issue of American Naturalist.

From the AmphibiaWeb site:

Although chytridiomycosis has devastated many amphibian populations worldwide, it remains unclear whether the fungal pathogen responsible (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) is a new emerging pathogen or an endemic pathogen which has been exacerbated by environmental changes.

From the AmphibiaWeb site

A team of American and Ecuadorian scientists, working for the nonprofit organization Reptile and Amphibian Ecology International, has discovered an estimated 30 new species of rain frogs (genus Pristimantis) at a site in coastal Ecuador. Nearly half of the new species come from a small cloudforest patch on Cerro Pata de Pájaro. Cloudforests and surrounding rainforest usually contain high biodiversity and are under threat from both logging and climate change. For more Ecuadorian amphibians also see QCAZ's site AmphibiaWeb Ecuador (en Español).

From the AmphibiaWeb home page:

The New York Times describes conservation efforts for this Extinct in the Wild species, Nectophrynoides asperginis. This tiny toad species, which gives birth to miniscule toadlets, was discovered in 1998 living in the spray zone of a single Tanzanian waterfall.

From the AWeb site:

The Center for Biological Diversity last week petitioned the California Fish and Game Commission to list all populations of mountain yellow-legged frogs (Rana muscosa, in the southern Sierra and Transverse Ranges, and Rana sierrae, in the central and northern Sierra) as endangered.

from the AmphibiaWeb site:

2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity! Amphibians are the most threatened vertebrate taxon, with at least 42% of species declining in numbers and nearly a third already threatened with extinction or lost entirely (Stuart et al. 2004). Please help conserve habitat, fund fieldwork and conservation, and become more aware of your local amphibians and the particular threats they face.

From the AmphibiaWeb site:

Was it fraud? Or the first demonstration of epigenetics?

From the AmphibiaWeb site:

Behavioral thermoregulation may be an important mechanism for amphibians to resist amphibian chytrid fungus infection. Richards-Zawacki (Proc. Royal Society B. 2010, 277[1681]:519-528) showed that wild Panamanian golden frogs (Atelopus zeteki) had elevated body temperatures during a chytridiomycosis epidemic, regardless of air temperature, and that this affected chytrid fungal infection prevalence.

From the Aweb site:

A new paper on amphibian evolution (Sigurdsen and Bolt 2009) shows that salamanders and frogs share elbow morphology with the fossil caecilian Eocaecilia. In turn this synapomorphy is shared only with the Paleozoic temnospondyls, and not with lepospondyls, lending support to the monophyletic origin of lissamphibians from temnospondyls.

From the AmphibiaWeb site:

A new paper by Weinstein (Copeia 2009:653–660) discusses chytridiomycosis in a terrestrial direct-developing plethodontid salamander, Batrachoseps attenuatus. Among other findings, infected salamanders had 100% mortality when kept in cool, moist conditions but cleared infections under dry conditions similar to summer estivation.