Species introCountry intro
Mossy Tree Frog - Platymantis subterrestris
I communicated with an Herpetologists from US and his counterpart from Philippines who have done extensive research in Amphibians and Reptiles in Philippines and they told me this is very likely a Platymantis subterrestris. However, their record of Platymantis subterrestris is from a different mountain, Mt. Data whereas those I have seen are from a different mountain. According to them, this species can be highly variable although they did admit that they haven't seen some of the variations in the pictures that I showed them. According to them, Platymantis subterrestris is the only Tree Frog species from the Philippines that are found in the montane forest of above 2,00 masl.
The Mount Data forest frog is a species of frog in the Ceratobatrachidae family. It is endemic to the Philippines. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. It is threatened by habitat loss.
comments (3)
This was my third trip to this same mountain/trail and what I have noticed from the first trip was many findings from there were either rare or yet to be described, which leads me to research further and I came across a team of researchers from US who did many scientific expeditions to Philippines, nearly very year. I contacted them to help with the IDs, not only on this Frog, but also other Frogs, Lizards and Snakes that I have came across during my field trips in the last few years. They were very helpful with the IDs and happy to get additional photo materials from me for their records.
By the way, this Frog is enlisted as Endangered under the IUCN Red List due to habitat loss. Posted 8 years ago
https://www.jungledragon.com/specie/11392/mt.-data-forest-frog.html Posted 8 years ago