Description
Diagnosis: Small body size; wide head; large eyes; small tympanum; side of face uniformly black; finger discs smaller than toe discs; Finger I normal size; Finger I has disc bearing circum-marginal groove; lateral surfaces same color as or darker than dorsum; no black lateral band; short, black bar on upper part of tympanum.

Description: Adult males measure 16.4-18.9 mm SVL. Adult females measure 21.8 mm SVL. Head is moderately wide. Snout is rounded, truncate, and projects slightly in lateral view; shallowly angulate in dorsal view, with a rounded canthus rostralis and a steep oblique loreal region. Nostrils lie close to the tip of the snout. Eyes are large. Small tympanum with a raised annulus and no supratympanic fold. Dorsal, lateral and ventral surfaces are smooth, except the ventral surface is weakly granular on the abdomen. Lacking a supratympanic fold. Fingers are unwebbed, with the first finger normal size and having a disc with a circum-marginal groove. All fingers bear expanded discs although that of Finger I is barely wider than the penultimate phalanx. Subarticular tubercles not obviously present and the metacarpal tubercles are barely developed. Long hind legs. Toes are unwebbed and bear discs larger than those on the fingers; discs have terminal grooves. Subarticular tubercles are barely present (thickened skin). Inner metatarsal tubercle is elongated and narrow and the outer metatarsal tubercle is absent (Kraus and Allison 2009).

Red-brown to orange-brown dorsum with a few random small dark brown spots as well as a dark brown postocular blotch. May have tan vertebral stripe and/or narrow black dorsolateral stripe. The sides of the body are a lighter brown to straw color. The sides of the face are black, while the rest of the face may be dark brown with a few light brown spots around the jawline, or also black. Canthus may have a narrow light-brown stripe. Dark brown throat and chin with many freckles, but minimal freckles on the chest and abdomen. Iris black with specks of silver-bronze, or dark copper, or orange-brown. On the lower half of the upper arm is a dark brown stripe that runs along the anterior. Venter is pale straw in color, with extensive brown flecking on the chin and throat and more sparse flecking on the chest and abdomen. The ventral surfaces of the thighs are light straw with dark brown freckles on the posterior. The front of the thighs are pale straw with dark brown flecking. The rear of the thighs may be straw or orange-brown with dense gray flecking.

The single adult female specimen has dark brown dorsolateral stripes running from scapula to groin, with the sides of the body a darker brown than the dorsum (Kraus and Allison 2009).

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Papua New Guinea

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

Found in Papua New Guinea on Sudest Island, Milne Bay Province. Inhabits forest floor in primary lowland rainforests at elevations of about 440-800 m ASL (Kraus and Allison 2009).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
Active by day on the forest floor (Kraus and Allison 2009).

Comments
The specific epithet melanops refers to the black face (Kraus and Allison 2009).

References

Kraus, F., and Allison, A. (2009). ''New species of Cophixalus (Anura: Microhylidae) from Papua New Guinea.'' Zootaxa, 2128, 1-38.

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2010 Cophixalus melanops <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/7342> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Nov 21, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 21 Nov 2024.

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