110 family hylidae

FAMILY HYLIDAE

Subfamily Hylinae

Dendropsophus brevifrons (Duellman & Crump, 1974) Common name(s): Crump Treefrog (Eng.), stompsnuit dwergboomkikker (Dutch) Hyla brevifrons Duellman & Crump, 1974, Occas. Pap. Mus. Nat. Hist. Univ. Kansas 23: 5. Type locality: “Santa Cecilia, Provincia Napo, Ecuador”.

Short description

Max size 2.5 cm. Snout short and stout. Tympanum visible. No skinfold above tympanum. The back is smooth, the belly is granular. Fingers are ½ webbed, toes are ¾ webbed. The iris is gray brown with a fine reddish golden oval bordering the pupil. D. brevifrons has two crème spots underneath the eyes, narrow shaped and characteristic for this species. The dorsal colour is beige gray to light brown with dark brown bands and markings, including a hour-glass marking in the neck. Also dark brown bands on the members. Males have a longer elongated crème spot on the flanks than females. There is also a crème spot on the groin, and 2 on the anterior part of the thighs. The ventral part is grayish, the chest is white. D. brevifrons differs from other small tree frogs in Suriname by the many white spots on lips, legs and flank

Distribution

Upper Amazon Basin, state of Amazonas, Brazil and Guianas. Distribution in Suriname: at present only known from four localities in the interior.

Habitat

In trees in primary rainforest.

Reproduction

Before the rainy season (January/February) males come together close to a marshy area and call from bushes at a height of 1 to 3m. The eggs are attached to leaves or small branches close to the water. Tadpoles emerge and drop into the water in approx. 6 hours. They have a brown black body with a beige dorsolateral dendropsophus brevifrons 111

Fig. 104 Dendropsophus brevifrons. © Raffael Ernst.

Fig. 105 Distribution of Dendropsophus brevifrons in Suriname.