Hula painted frog

Appearance

The Hula painted frog has a dark belly with small white spots. It is colored ochre above with a rusty colour grading into dark olive-grey to greyish-black on the sides. Differences from the common painted frog include its greater interocular distance, longer forelimbs, and a less projecting snout. The type specimen was an adult female with a body length of 40 millimetres

Little is known about its history, because few specimens have been found by scientists. Two adults and two tadpoles were collected in 1940 and a single specimen was found in 1955. This would prove to be the last record of this species until 2011.

The four 1940 specimens were to be used as types, but the smaller, half-grown frog was eaten by the larger one in captivity.

According to an ecologist of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, the frog's Hebrew name, "agulashon shehor-gahon", derives from its black belly and round tongue. The scientific name of the species reflects these details as well. Unlike the tongues of other frogs, it is not used to catch prey.

This frog was originally proposed to be a member of the genus "Discoglossus", but further genetic and morphological assessment after the rediscovery of the species led a reassignment to genus "Latonia", for which no other living examples are known. Fossils of "Latonia" are known in Europe spanning from the Upper Oligocene until the Early Pleistocene. The closest relative of Latonia is considered to be "Discoglossus." On this basis, the Hula painted frog has been labeled a living fossil, the only extant representative of an ancient genetic split.

Status

In 1996, the IUCN classified this species as "extinct in the wild", the very first amphibian to be given that designation by the IUCN. Israel continued to list it as an endangered species in the slim hope that a relict population may be found in the Golan Heights or in southern Lebanon. Following the rediscovery of the species in 2011, the IUCN now considers the frog to be critically endangered as its known habitat occupies less than 2 km2.

In 2000, a scientist from the Lebanese nature protection organisation A Rocha claimed he had seen a frog species which could be "Latonia nigriventer" in the Aammiq Wetland south of the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon. Two French-Lebanese-British expeditions in the years 2004 and 2005 yielded no confirmation as to the further existence of this species. In August 2010, a search organised by the Amphibian Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature set out to look for various species of frogs thought to be extinct in the wild, including the Hula painted frog.