Description
Diagnosis: Small lime-green frog with yellow spots (apple-green dorsum with white spots in Honduran specimens; McCranie and Wilson 2002) and an obtuse snout in profile, light green bones, translucent parietal peritoneum, and white pericardium, liver, and digestive tract (Savage 2002).

Can be distinguished from all other Honduran centrolenids except Hyalinobatrachium chirripoi by extensive webbing between Fingers II-III. T. pulverata differs from H. chirripoi by having vomerine teeth, pale green bones, a white parietal pericardium, an obtuse snout, and an unpigmented Type I nuptial pad in males (McCranie and Wilson 2002, comparing to H. cardiacalyptum, which has been synonymized with H. chirripoi).

Description: This uncommon, small frog has a snout-vent length of 22 mm to 29 mm in males and 23 mm to 29 mm in females. The top of the head is flat. The snout is moderately elongated, appearing rounded from the dorsal view and obtuse in lateral profile. The canthus rostralis is distinct and rounded, while the loreal region is slightly concave. Nostrils are slightly swollen and directed anterolaterally, situated closer to the margin of the snout than to the eyes, and the internarial area is slightly concave. Eyes are protuberant and visible past the lip margin from overhead, with horizontally elliptical pupils. The tongue is ovoid and slightly free posteriorly. Vomerine teeth are in patches on elevated, medial, inclined ridges and separated from neighboring tooth patches by a distance shorter than the width of the patches. Maxillary teeth are also present. The tympanum can appear either distinct or indistinct; a supratympanic fold narrowly obscures the upper edge of the tympanum. The body shape is angular and slightly flat. Upper arms are slender and forearms are moderately robust. A low dermal ridge is present along the posterior ventrolateral margin of the forearm. Discs on fingers are moderately expanded, and the disc pads on the hands and fingers are truncate. Fingers have round, globular to slightly raised subarticular tubercles. The palmar tubercle is elevated and ovoid. The prepollex lacks a free distal end, and the prepollical spine is absent. Finger lengths relative to each other are II < I < IV < III. Fingers I and II have basal webbing, and the remaining fingers are characterized by webbing pattern II 1-3 III 1 3/4-1 IV. Fingers II-IV have weak lateral keels on the unwebbed portions. Heels overlap broadly when adpressed. The inner tarsal fold is weak and extends about one-third the length of the tarsus. Toes have round subarticular tubercles. The inner metatarsal tubercle is elevated and elliptical while the outer metatarsal tubercle is either absent or indistinct. Toe lengths relative to each other are I < II < III = V < IV, with expanded, truncated toe discs that are slightly smaller than those on the fingers. Webbing on the feet is characterized by I 1-2 II 3/4-2 III 3/4-2 IV 2-3/4 V. Lateral keels are present on unwebbed portions of the toes. The dorsal skin is weakly granular and the most obvious granules are present on the snout and sides of the head. The throat, belly and ventral surfaces of the thighs are characterized by coarsely areolate skin. Below the vent, granules range in size from small to large with subcloacal folds positioned laterally to the granules. Males possess paired vocal slits, a medium-sized sub-gular sac, and unpigmented nuptial pads (Savage 2002; McCranie and Wilson 2002).

In life, female specimens have "apple green" (McCranie and Wilson 2002) dorsal surfaces with numerous indistinct white spots. The skin of the lower portion of the flanks is yellowish-white while the skin on the belly and chest is translucent. Eyes have translucent and unpatterned palpebral membranes. The bones of this species are pale green. The parietal pericardium and the visceral peritoneum are white while the parietal peritoneum is translucent (Savage 2002).

In preservative, the dorsal surfaces of the frog take on a yellowish-white tinge with many tiny lavender flecks. The flecking is absent where white spots were present when the frog was alive. The anterior and posterior surfaces of the thighs are pale yellow, while the skin of the chest and belly are translucent and colorless. The parietal pericardium and visceral peritoneum remain white, and the parietal peritoneum remains colorless in preservative (the same as in life).

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama

	View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.
	View Bd and Bsal data (6 records).

Distribution on the Atlantic versant ranges from north-central Honduras to Valle de Cauca, Colombia and on the Pacific versant from southern Costa Rica to southeastern Panama (Savage 2002; McCranie and Wilson 2002). Within Honduras this species is known from northwestern and eastern Olancho and from a single locality in southeastern Colon (McCranie and Wilson 2002). Teratohyla pulverata lives in moist lowland and wet forest habitats at low to moderate elevations, up to 960 m asl (Savage 2002).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
During the rainy season from May to October, males call from the vegetation surrounding fast-moving streams, similar to other Costa Rican centrolenids (Savage 2002). Eggs are deposited on leaves above water (Solís et al. 2008). Ovarian eggs found within a collected female specimen were greenish-tinged (McCranie and Wilson 2002). A single clutch of unguarded embryos was observed to exit their egg capsules with exposure to formalin; these embryos had pale brown bodies and tail musculature in life, along with greenish-yellow yolk sacs (McCranie and Wilson 2002).

Trends and Threats
It is somewhat common in Honduras, not common in Costa Rica, and rare in Colombia. Its population status in Nicaragua and Panama has not been reported. It occurs within several protected areas. Although populations may face local threats from deforestation and pollution, overall the species is not threatened. It can apparently tolerate some habitat fragmentation as it is known to persist in small patches of suitable habitat (Solís et al. 2008).

Comments

The name pulveratum stems from the Latin word pulveris meaning "dust" or "powder" and the Latin suffix -atus , meaning "provided with"; it alludes to the tiny spots on the dorsal surfaces of preserved specimens (McCranie and Wilson 2002).

A Spanish-language species account can be found at the website of Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio).

References

McCranie, J. R., and Wilson, L. D. (2002). ''The Amphibians of Honduras.'' Contributions to Herpetology, Vol 19. K. Adler and T. D. Perry, eds., Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Ithaca, New York.

Savage, J. M. (2002). The Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica:a herpetofauna between two continents, between two seas. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, USA and London.

Solís, F., Ibáñez, R., Castro, F., Grant, T., Acosta-Galvis, A., and Kubicki, B. (2008). Cochranella pulverata. In: IUCN 2010. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.1. www.iucnredlist.org. Downloaded on 05 May 2010.

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2019 Teratohyla pulverata: Dusty Glassfrog <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/1825> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Dec 29, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 29 Dec 2024.

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