hear Fonozoo call

Description
Eleutherodactylus ricordii is a small frog, with females larger than males and reaching up to 40 mm in SVL. The digital discs are large. There is no webbing between the toes. The vomerine teeth, behind the choanae, are present in a long and oblique series (Schwartz and Henderson 1985; Schwartz and Henderson 1991).

This frog is yellowish tan to dull brown, heavily spotted with black or dark olive-black. The venter is gray and the throat is gray with some yellowish to tan flecks (Schwartz and Henderson 1985; Schwartz and Henderson 1991).

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Cuba

	View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.
	View Bd and Bsal data (1 records).

This species is endemic to Cuba and it is found only in the Sierra Maestra and Sagua-Baracoa mountains, in eastern Cuba, between 290 and 1150 m in elevation. This is a terrestrial species found in mesic upland forests (Schwartz and Henderson 1991).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
These frogs are nocturnal. They take shelter under rocks, logs and other objects by day. At night they are found on ground, rocks, and rocky hill slopes, along creeks and on roads. Sometimes they climb into low bushes, up to 0.3 m above the ground (Schwartz and Henderson 1991). Other aspects of the natural history of this species are unknown.

Trends and Threats
This species is threatened by habitat destruction as a result of deforestation due to agriculture, woodcutting, disturbance from tourists, and infrastructure development for human settlement (Hedges and Diaz 2004). Some natural areas in Eastern Cuba have been degraded and substituted by coffee or timber plantations, or even by pastures, inducing the extinction of this species from its original habitat (Fong 1999).

Possible reasons for amphibian decline

General habitat alteration and loss
Habitat modification from deforestation, or logging related activities
Intensified agriculture or grazing
Urbanization

Comments
Eleutherodactylus ricordii is a member of the Eleutherodactylus ricordii group (subgenus Euhyas). Related species include Eleutherodactylus bresslerae and E. acmonis (Heinicke et al. 2007).

Synonyms include Hylodes ricordii (Dumeril and Bibron 1841), Euhyas ricordii (Fitzinger 1843), and Lithodytes ricordii (Cope 1875).

References

Cope, E. D. (1875). ''Checklist of North American Batrachia and Reptilia.'' Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 1, 31.

Duméril, A. M. C., and Bibron, G. (1841). Erpétologie Générale ou Histoire Naturelle Complète des Reptiles. Volume 8. Librairie Roret, Paris.

Fitzinger, L. (1843). Systema Reptilium. Vienna.

Fong, A. (1999). ''Changes in amphibian composition in altered habitats in eastern Cuba.'' Froglog, 36, 2.

Hedges, S. B. and Díaz, L. M. (2004). Eleutherodactylus ricordii. In: IUCN 2007. 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. http://www.iucnredlist.org/. Downloaded on 11 November 2007.

Heinicke, M. P., Duellman, W. E., Hedges, S. B. (2007). ''Major Caribbean and Central American frog faunas originated by ancient oceanic dispersal.'' Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104(24), 10092-10097.

Schwartz, A., and Henderson, R. W. (1985). A Guide to the Identification of the Amphibians and Reptiles of the West Indies Exclusive of Hispaniola. Milwaukee Public Museum, Inland Press, Milwaukee.

Schwartz, A., and Henderson, R. W. (1991). Amphibians and Reptiles of the West Indies. Descriptions, Distributions, and Natural History. University of Florida Press, Gainesville, Florida, USA.

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2007 Eleutherodactylus ricordii: Oriente Yellow-mottled Frog <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/3175> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Nov 26, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 26 Nov 2024.

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