Description
Dendropsophus vraemi is a frog that has a snout-vent length of 22.8 - 27.6 mm in males. There is an axillary membrane that reaches halfway to the elbow and basal webbing on the fingers. There is webbing on the toes. The palmar tubercle is bifid (Caminer et al. 2017; Chávez et al. 2021).

This species is most similar to D. bifurcus and D. salli, however, it can be distinguished by having two to four lateral stripes on the sacrum while D. bifurcus and D. salli have one rounded or rhomboidal mark. Dendropsophus vraemi can be distinguished from D. reticulatus by its yellow venter, which is orange in D. reticulatus. It can be distinguished from D. arndti and D. triangulum by having a smaller size and thin dorsolateral bands. The thin dorsolateral bands can also be used to differentiate it from D. leucophyllatus (Caminer et al. 2017).

In life, the dorsal coloration is a brown, dark brown, grayish brown, or yellow and there are creamy white or light brown thin dorsolateral bands that extend to the head. There are rounded marks on the dorsal surface of the shanks and two to four lateral stripes on the sacrum. Both the marks and the stripes have smooth and well-defined edges. There is a pale triangular mark on the head with the base in the interorbital region and the apex between the nostrils. The ventral surfaces are yellowish and the limbs and webbing are orange or pink. The iris is a gray bronze or bronze yellow color (Caminer et al. 2017; Chávez et al. 2021).

In preservative, the dorsal coloration, rounded marks, and stripes are the same as in life, but the ventral surfaces and webbing are a creamy white with some sections on the pectoral region that are slightly yellow (Caminer et al. 2017).

This species has color variation and geographic-based size variation. The dorsal coloration varies between brown, grayish brown, and dark brown. The marks on the dorsum and the dorsolateral bands vary from a creamy white to a light brown. The amount of dorsolateral stripes vary from two to four (Caminer et al. 2017). Specimens from the region with lower elevation have a smaller snout-vent length than the specimens from the higher elevation region. These same lower elevation region specimens also have a yellow background pattern in life and bronze-yellow irises (Chávez et al. 2021).

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Peru

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

Dendropsophus vraemi has been found in two locations: La Mar, in the Peruvian Amazon basin at an elevation of 694 meters above sea level and in the Boca Kiatari Native Community, Satipo province, Junin department, Peru at an elevation of 210 meters above sea level. The vegetation type in both localities is Peruvian Yunga, which is a tropical and subtropical forest region in Peru (Caminer et al. 2017; Chávez et al. 2021).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors

All specimens of D. vraemi have been captured at night in ephemeral flooded areas or near streams (Caminer et al. 2017; Chávez and Thompson 2021).

Dendropsophus vraemi has two calls, an advertisement and an aggressive call. The advertisement call consists of two pulsed notes with 106 pulses per call. The average call duration is 0.70 s, the average rise time is 0.09 s, and the average dominant frequency is 2431.51 Hz. The aggressive call consists of three pulsed notes with an average duration of 1.24 s, an average dominant frequency of 2431.51 Hz, an average call rise time of 1.05 s, and a frequency bandwidth of 937.50 Hz (Chávez et al. 2021).

The aggressive call consists of three pulsed notes with an average call duration of 1.53 s, an average dominant frequency of 2269.44 Hz, an average call rise time of 0.39 s, and a frequency bandwidth of 750.00 Hz (Chávez et al. 2021).

Trends and Threats

There is very little information on D. vraemi, and thus not enough data to assess the threats to the species (Caminer et al. 2017).

Comments

Based on a 2017 Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian analysis of nucDNA and 16S mtDNA, D. vraemi was shown to be sister to D. salli, the two of which form a clade that is sister to D. elegans (Caminer et al. 2017).

References

Chávez, G., Barboza, A. C., and Thompson, M. E. (2021). The distribution and calls of Vraem' Treefrog, Dendropsophus vraemi (Caminer, Milá, Jansen, Fouquet, Venegas, Chávez, Lougheed, and Ron 2017), with comments on its conservation status. Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, 15(2): 311 - 317 (e295). [link]

Caminer, M. A., Milá, B., Jansen, M., Fouquet, A., Venegas, P. J., Chávez, G., Lougheed, S. C. and Ron, S. R. (2017). Systematics of the Dendropsophus leucophyllatus species complex (Anura: Hylidae): Cryptic diversity and the description of two new species. PLoS (Public Library of Science) One 12(3), e0171785. [link]

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2024 Dendropsophus vraemi: Vraem's treefrog <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/8603> 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.

AmphibiaWeb's policy on data use.