Critically Endangered
Archey's frog
Leiopelma archeyi
Archey's frog is an archaic species of frog endemic to the North Island of New Zealand.
Appearance
The frogs have variable colours and patterns, often with a light to dark brown dorsal surface with scattered dark blotches, pink/orange-brown lateral surface, and a black or dark brown ventral surface.
Females of the species grow up to 37 mm (1.5 in) in length, while males grow to 31 mm (1.2 in).
Taxonomy The species was first described by Evan Graham Turbott in 1942, It is named after Sir Gilbert Archey, the former director of the Auckland Institute.
Range and habitat
The species is found in two locations: the Coromandel Peninsula, and the Whareorino Forest near Te Kūiti, both areas of the Waikato Region of the North Island, New Zealand. The species typically lives in higher elevations, on ridges away from creeks in high moisture areas of native forest, although in the mid-20th century the species had previously been found at lower elevations. Archey's frog is an archaic species of frog endemic to the North Island of New Zealand.
It is found only in the Coromandel Peninsula and near Te Kūiti in the North Island of New Zealand.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
Archey's frog is active at night, hiding under rocks in the daytime. Reproduction is fully terrestrial. Tadpoles develop within gelatinous egg capsules, and upon hatching, tailed froglets crawl onto the male's back and are carried around, and take several weeks to complete metamorphosis.
In crisis
Because populations are rapidly declining, and reproduction is infrequent, the species is at significant risk of imminent extinction. The species is categorised as Nationally Vulnerable under the New Zealand Threat Classification System and as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Rats and the introduced green and golden bell frog are known to kill Archey's frogs.
Introduced predators known to predate other frog species in New Zealand, such as pigs, cats, hedgehogs and ferrets, are also likely to have an impact. An intensively monitored population in one Coromandel site declined by 88% from 1996 to 2001.
Chytrid fungus, collection, and wet-forest loss are the usual pressures on frogs with a high threat category.
Archey's frog is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Archey's frog, Wikidata item Q2274157. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
