An international team of scientists has announced a newly found species of poison dart frog deep in the Amazon, set apart by its coppery limbs and blue stripes that its discoverers describe as both enchanting and otherworldly.
Found along the banks of the Juruá River in western Brazil, the species joins the Ranitomeya genus of dart frogs, known to be scattered in small populations across the foothills of the Andes Mountains and Amazon rainforest.
The new species is named Ranitomeya aetherea, translated from the Latin word for “heavenly,” in a decision made by the Brazilian and Czech research team because it “philosophically refers to the coloration of the species’ dorsal stripes: a shade of blue reminiscent of the sky.”
“We attribute this name to one’s feeling of enchantment and delicacy when encountering these frogs, as if they were from outside this world,” the research paper announcing the discovery reads.
The frogs were examined for their size, shape and colours, as well as their tadpoles and the “cricket-like” sounds they made, including “advertisement” and “courtship” calls.
After comparing them against the 16 other kinds of Ranitomeya already recognized, researchers describe aetherea as “readily distinguished” as its own species, notably by its colour pattern.
The aetherea frogs are only the second species of Ranitomeya discovered in a decade. In a study published last month by some of the same researchers, a separate species with a blue-green colouration, Ranitomeya aquamarina, emerged as well.
That name, they wrote, evokes both the colour of seawater and aquamarine gemstones, adding that the latter “conveys the value of this discovery.”
Both frogs were found near the Juruá and its tributaries, a region scientists describe as “one of the most difficult” in Amazonia, and also one of the least sampled.
To remedy the blind spot, new biodiversity research under the modules of the Rapid Assessment Program for Environmental and Long-Term Ecological Research (RAPELD) has shown “great improvement,” they say.
While the aetherea have only been observed in a relatively small region thus far, the study notes it may just be a matter of time before more are found.
“The Juruá River area is very poorly studied and it will not be a surprise if future research provides evidence of a wider occurrence of the new species,” the study reads.
