SUMMARY

• PREVALENCE: Uncommon

• ACTIVE PERIOD: Active at night

• KEY ID FEATURES: Body with many tubercles and granules with tubercles often red in color, forelimbs yellow or orange

• SIZE: ~3cm

• IUCN: LC - Least Concern

GALLERY

IMPORTANT: Many frogs have significant variance in coloration and pattern even within the same species. There can also be extreme differences in appearance from juveniles to adults and some species appear very similar in maturity.

DESCRIPTION

The Butler’s pigmy frog is a small species of narrow mouth frog with a restricted range. Their body is roughly triangular in shape with a short pointed nose. They have an irregular dark brown or black marking on the back extending from behind each eye on the top of the head to the posterior. The body color around the dark marking is generally light brown and covered in tubercles, sometimes red in color, that often extend to the hindlimbs. The forelimbs are normally light yellow or light orange with dark brown blotches or flecks on the lower portion. Hindlimbs are light brown with dark brown blotches and partial bands. A skin fold extends down from behind each eye, terminating just before the forelimb joint with the body. The skin along the front side of the skin fold is light yellow or orange.

The venter is light yellow or off-white on the chest and belly. The underside of the chin is a mottled brown and off-white often with several slightly larger white markings along the lower jaw. The underside of the hindlimbs are opaque with some light spots and granules around the cloaca.

There are four digits on the forelimbs with no webbing present. The hindlimbs have five digits and small toe pads. Digits on the hind limbs have reduced webbing.

HABITAT

They live in forest and marsh habitats rarely far from water sources.

MISTAKEN IDENTITY

CAUTION SHOULD TAKEN WHEN INTERACTING WITH AMPHIBIANS: The Butler’s pigmy frog looks similar to the ornate pigmy frog. The main physical differences are the larger more dense tubercles, often red in color on the Butler’s giving its skin a rough appearance vs the ornate pigmy frogs smooth skin with few, widely spaced tubercles. The Ornate pigmy frog can, on occasion show a thin vertebral stripe running from snout to vent, which is not known to occur in Butler’s. The Butler’s pigmy frog also often has orange or yellow forelimbs.