Ryan Photographic - Eleutherodactylidae - Rain frogs

Family Eleutherodactylidae

According to Amphibiabase there are 213 species of these frogs in four genera. One species, from Puerto Rico, may be extinct as it hasn't been observed since 1981. They range in size from one of the smallest frogs in the world, Eleutherodactylus iberia, in which the adult females reach only 10.5 mm snout to vent length (SVL) to 88m in E. inoptatus. Typically they lay direct development eggs although the Puerto Rican species mentioned above, E. jasperi, retained eggs in the oviduct where they developed, before the female gave birth to small frogs. A specimen of E. iberia was found besides a single egg which suggests that this may well be the normal clutch size. With such low fecindity many of these species may be threatened by development and the chytrid fungal epidemic which is affecting frog populations world-wide.

Eleutherodactylids range from Florida (where they may have been introduced) south into the Amazon basin.

Diasporus diastema Dink frog, Caretta robber frog

FROG 0674 Diasporus diastema Calling male dink frog (Caretta robber frog) Arean volcano, Costa Rica.

Fishes

 Photo Library