Taruga eques

Appearance

Adult males measure 33–43 mm (1.3–1.7 in) and females 59–71 mm (2.3–2.8 in) in snout–vent length. Their snout is long, sharp, and triangular. Females' snouts are a red-orange while males tend to be brown. The underside of the snout is a grey to cream-yellow color.

Range and habitat

It is endemic to the central hills of Sri Lanka.

It is present in the Horton Plains National Park, Hakgala Strict Nature Reserve, Knuckles Mountain Forest Reserve, and the Peak Wilderness Sanctuary. Knuckles Mountain Forest Reserve, a known habitat for the species, has recently been threatened by tea and cardamom plantations, unregulated construction, tourism, man-made forest fires, and invasive species.

Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.

Breeding

Calling males and egg sites define most frog field work. A species known from one ridge is as narrow as it sounds.

Eggs and damp skin make amphibians quick to vanish from a drained wetland or a forest stripped of litter.

In crisis

While it is commonly found in Sri Lanka, it is classified as endangered by the IUCN due to habitat loss. Decreases in rainfall due to climate change, subcutaneous parasitic infections, and forest dieback have also been identified as possible threats to the species.

Chytrid fungus, collection, and wet-forest loss are the usual pressures on frogs with a high threat category.

Taruga eques is 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 Taruga eques, Wikidata item Q28056349. 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.