Description
Pristimantis leoni has the following combination of characters: skin of dorsum shagreened with numerous short ridges, that of venter areolate; some tubercles on posterior back; enlarged warts on head; no dorsolateral or discoidal folds; tympanum partially concealed beneath skin, higher than long, and larger in males than in females. Snout is short and subacuminate in dorsal view and semitruncate in lateral profile. Interorbital space is flat and broader than upper eyelid. Frontoparietal fontanelle is not exposed. Prevomerine odontophores low, oblique, as large or smaller than choanae. Males with vocal slits and subgular vocal sac. First finger is sheerer than second. Fingers lack lateral fringes and subarticular tubercles are wider than long, flat. Ulnar tbercles present, none elongated or prominent. No enlarged heel tubercles; outer tarsal tubercles small, conical; ridge-like inner tarsal tubercle present; two metatarsal tubercles, inner elongate, noncompressed, two times size of rounded outer. Toes possess narrow, keel-like lateral fringes, lacking basal webbing. All toes with discs on pads.

Coloration is as follows: dorsum brown to reddish-brownish dark gray, black, tan, and cream markings. Lips barred cream and brown. Venter gray with white flecks and/or small yellow spots; throat with yellow wash; groin and lower flanks bearing small orangish-yellow spots; concealed thigh bright red; iris powder blue with black flecks and black horizontal streak. The groin in many larger individuals is bright red.

Pristimantis leoni resembles P. pyrrhomerus in having red flash coloration and in lacking enlarged heel tubercles, having bad subarticular tubercles, and in ear size. Both have enlarged tubercles on the upper eyelid but P. pyrrhomerus has only 1-2 whereas P. leoni has numerous eyelid tubercles.

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Colombia, Ecuador

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

Specimens are known from localities at elevations of 2710-3400 m on the Pacific slopes of the Andes and from 2590-2700 m on the Amazonian slopes of the Andes in northern Ecuador and southern Colombia.

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
Type series collected by day in the cloud forest on the slopes of the Nudo de Mojanda. Two found under a small log, while the third was sitting at the base of some ferns in a dense mat of vegetation.

Possible reasons for amphibian decline

General habitat alteration and loss

References

Lynch, J. D. (1976). ''Three new leptodactylid frogs (Genus Eleutherodactylus) from the Andean Slopes of Colombia and Ecuador.'' Herpetologica, 32(3), 310-317.

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2007 Pristimantis leoni <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/3016> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Dec 12, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 12 Dec 2024.

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