Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Ecuador, Peru

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

Ranges from eastern Ecuador (Morona-Santiago, Orellana, and Pastaza provinces) and northern Loreto Department in Peru, up to 960 m elevation (Ortega-Andrade et al 2015).

This frog inhabits the Amazonian lowland and foothill forests (Ortega-Andrade et al 2015).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
The species is active at night found on low vegetation, up to 3 m above the ground, but likely forages in the forest canopy (Ortega-Andrade et al 2015).

Calls and reproductive behavior are unknown at the time of its description. This species does exhibit sexual dimorphism with smaller males than females.

Comments
Pristimantis enigmaticus is in the Pristimantis acuminatus group, the species with which it was previous confused, according to the original description. Phylogenetic analysis by Ortega-Andrade et al (2015) show it is sister species to P. acuminatus. Its specific epithet, "enigmaticus", refers to its previously "hidden" or cryptic status as a species (Ortega-Andrade et al 2015).

Ortega-Andrade et al (2015), specifically Table 7, provides a useful matrix of greenish Amazonian lowlands Pristimantis to help diagnose these species.

References

Ortega-Andrade HM, OR Rojas-Soto, JH Valencia, A Espinosa de los Monteros, JJ Morrone, SR Ron, and DC Cannatella (2015). "Insights from integrative systematics reveal cryptic diversity in Pristimantis frogs (Anura: Craugastoridae) from the Upper Amazon Basin." PLoS One , 10(11), e0143392: 1–43. [link]

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2023 Pristimantis enigmaticus <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/8405> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Feb 5, 2025.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2025. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 5 Feb 2025.

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