RICHARD FREEMAN: A FROG SO SMALL

European and Peruvian herpetologists have discovered the smallest frog in the world, in the highlands of Manu National Park near Cusco in south-eastern Peru.

It was found at an altitude 3000 m (9840 feet) and has been named Noblella pygmaea, or Noble's Pygmy Frog. Females measure less than half an inch (12.5 mm) in snout-vent length, whereas males are just a bit longer than 1 cm.

Noble's pygmy frog lay two eggs, which hatch into fully formed tiny frogs, not tadpoles.

The eggs are laid in moist places such as under mosses or the leaf litter. The mother remains near the eggs to protect them from predators and drying out. The eggs, measure 4 mm in diameter, about two-thirds of the size of their mother.

The frogs inhabit the cloud forest, the montane scrub and the high-elevation grasslands of Manu National Park and of the privately-owned Wayqecha Research Station in the upper Kcosñipata valley, named after a river which is a tributary to the Madre de Dios River in the Amazon basin. Their altitude range seems to be restricted between 3000 and 3200 metres (9840-10500 feet).
The Noble's Pygmy Frog is one among over 10 new frog species discovered over the past 2 years in the cloud forests of Cusco.