Description
This is a smaller member of the palmipes group of frogs (Hillis and de Sa 1988). Adult females have a maximum snout to vent length of 63 mm and adult males, 48 mm (Villa 1990). The head is pointed with a snout that is longer than it is wide. The tympanum is very evident in these frogs, but smaller than the eyes. The dorsal tubercles are reduced and the skin is smooth, Villa noted the presence of a very "fine, pearly" tubercle covering on the dorsum (Villa 1990). Color is variable, dorsal coloration ranges from bronze to metallic green and the brown variety may have green spots. They are darker laterally than dorsally and have a thin, light dorsolateral fold, border by darker stripes, the fold ends in the groin area. Ventral color varies from cream to dusky and the undersides of their limbs are distinctly red. Another very distinct marker on R. warszewitschii is the yellow spots found on both the posterior surface of the thighs and the axillae. The vocal slits and sacs are missing, along with Mullerian ducts in males. The first finger is larger than the second, and the fingers have greatly reduced webbing. The toes are, "2/3 webbed" as noted by Villa (Villa 1990), and are have expanded toe tips. Two metatarsal tubercles are present on each foot. (descriptions from Villa 1990 and Hillis and de Sa 1988).

Distribution and Habitat

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

	View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.
	View Bd and Bsal data (69 records).

This species is usually found on the forest floor in very humid environments from sea level to 2000m. They are common within their range from southeastern Honduras south and east to eastern Panama (Villa 1990; Hillis and De Sa 1988).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
Rana warszewitschii and R. vibicaria are the only frogs from the palmipes group to vocalize without vocal slits or sacs. The calls of R. warszewitschii have been described as short and trilled and soft in sound (Hillis and De Sa 1988).

Larva
The tadpoles are large (115 mm), dark and heavily mottled on the tail and fins. They have a muscular tail and low tail fins (Villa 1990).

Comments
The name warszewitchii has gone through many misspellings, starting with its first describer. Schmidt, in the original description in 1857, used the spelling R. warszewitchii, but later in a subsequent detailed description in 1858 the spelling used was R. warschewitchii. The original spelling has been declared the correct spelling, according to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (see Frost, 1999, Amphibian Species of the World, AMNH).

This species was featured in News of the Week May 20, 2024:

Characterizing species roles in wildlife communities is challenging because most disease emergence events are unpredictable. Compounding the challenge are naive multi-host communities which include species that may differentially maintain, transmit and amplify novel pathogens. Longo, Lips, and Zamudio (2023) used field-collected data from amphibians in the cloud forest of El Cope, Panama, to investigate how species-specific attributes influenced the degree of exposure, probability of infection, and pathogen intensity, during the emergence of the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). The ecological species traits identified in other Bd studies positively associated with infection prevalence and intensity at the species level during the outbreak. They identified hosts that disproportionately contributed to transmission dynamics and found a signature of phylogenetic history in disease responses. This study establishes a framework that could be applied in conservation efforts to identify key species driving disease dynamics under enzootics before reintroducing amphibians back into their original communities. Reintroductions of supersensitive hosts that are unable to overcome infections will limit the success of conservation programs by amplifying the disease at the community level. (Vance Vredenburg)

References

Hillis, D. M. and De Sa, R. (1988). ''Phylogeny and taxonomy of the Rana palmipes Group (Salientia: Ranidae).'' Herpetological Monographs, (2), 1-26.

Villa, J. D. (1990). ''Rana warszewitschii (Schmidt).'' Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, 459.1-459.2.

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2024 Rana warszewitschii: Warszewitsch's Frog <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/5183> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed May 19, 2025.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2025. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 19 May 2025.

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