# Nicaraguan Pumilio



## MonarchzMan (Oct 23, 2006)

So I've been trekking through the Central American wilderness again for my masters research (which is now done! Now onto writing...), and while the project did not deal with my masters research, my adviser had me spend two weeks in Nicaragua to start up a frog monitoring project, and one of the spots that I went was Kahka Creek Reserve (part of a national park), where there was a population of pumilio. It is unfortunate because last November, a hurricane hit the area and what was closed canopy primary forest lost probably 90% of its trees. The pumilio were still there, but I would guess not in the numbers that they were. I set up my straws (which worked in Panama) in an attempt to help the population. Time will tell how it helps.

But we did find some frogs, and I of course got pictures of them. I thought they were larger than the Panamanian pumilio, but not as big as I would have guessed (20-22mm). All of the frogs we found were FAT, including the males. I think that that is what threw me off. But they're really cool frogs to see. This population is probably one of the northernmost populations of pumilio. Without further ado, here's the pics! They vary from Costa Rican blue jeans in that it seems as though all of these have blue bellies.










































Hope you enjoyed them  And at some point I'll do an update on the Panamanian portion of the trip (going on vacation in Alaska for a week), so it may come after that. And I apologize that these pics are unedited. That's another thing I'll do after vacation.


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## Jason (Oct 14, 2004)

I wonder if the insect population has increased due to the lack of birds, bats, etc, due to the lack of canopy. Also with fallen trees there may be more habitat for ants, termites, mites, etc they they feed on. Just a thought.


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## Taron (Sep 23, 2009)

Sweet frog for sure hopefully these little guys keep on trucking


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## MonarchzMan (Oct 23, 2006)

It's possible, but my research in Panama indicates that rearing sites (e.g., bromeliads) seems to be most limiting for populations.


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## james67 (Jun 28, 2008)

jaw dropping! was the white on the ventral side common? 

james


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## MonarchzMan (Oct 23, 2006)

You're looking at my sample size (they were difficult to find). The white seems to be mostly on their chin. The ones that have white on the chin have bluish white throats, but the rest of the belly is blue.


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## james67 (Jun 28, 2008)

entire sample was 5 frogs? were they pretty uncommon then?

thats really cool with the white chin. i imagined it going further onto the belly. i really like the patterns on these little guys, like a miniature patriotic sylvatica (perfect in time for the 4th  )

james


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## ESweet (Apr 13, 2009)

The last two pictures are actually the same frog - I'm guessing the same with the first two as well.

From the work I've done in Costa Rica and Panama it is pretty obvious that tadpole deposition sites are population limiting, which is kind of neat.


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## MonarchzMan (Oct 23, 2006)

james67 said:


> entire sample was 5 frogs? were they pretty uncommon then?
> 
> thats really cool with the white chin. i imagined it going further onto the belly. i really like the patterns on these little guys, like a miniature patriotic sylvatica (perfect in time for the 4th  )
> 
> james


I actually got 6 frogs. I think that they were probably more common than that, but because of the state of the forest, you could not see anything between 0 and 3 feet off of the ground. I actually managed to get 6 frogs for morphometrics (slightly shy of the 40 I was shooting for), so the sample size wasn't that much bigger.

I hadn't thought of them as patriotic frogs. I think I missed an opportunity there. Maybe next year I'll try to import them and sell them around the 4th as USA Patriot Frogs, hahaha.

The last two are the same frog (two frogs would not cooperate for photos), but the first two are different frogs.


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## Eric Walker (Aug 22, 2009)

awsome frogs. love the blue belly


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

those are amazing, did you manage to take any belly shots?


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## tclipse (Sep 19, 2009)

that is too awesome.


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## MonarchzMan (Oct 23, 2006)

Here are the belly shots:


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## ChrisK (Oct 28, 2008)

I think your goal throughout the past year has been to taunt me.


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## MonarchzMan (Oct 23, 2006)

Have I succeeded yet? If not, maybe next year I can set out to find speciosus or arboreus? That should be worth a good dose of jealousy


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## ChrisK (Oct 28, 2008)

Yeah really, even though I already got some, all those uyama pics from the last time got me going - I'd like to get some of the more blue ones to throw into the mix


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## james67 (Jun 28, 2008)

wow you can really tell which are males from the throat.

speciosa is incredible, but so are arboreus (i always thought they looked like a reverse gold dust basti). but you would probably need to take some tree climbing courses for the latter 

james


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## JimO (May 14, 2010)

Even more beautiful than the Costa Rican blue jeans, in my opinion, which has been the one pumilio morph that I have always wanted (maybe when I win the lottery ). They're out of my price range for the time being.


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

interesting that they have some yellow to the belly. pretty sweet.


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## skylsdale (Sep 16, 2007)

JP, how common is the blue belly in the Costa Rica "blue jeans" frogs?


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## MonarchzMan (Oct 23, 2006)

I do not remember the blue belly being very common in the Costa Rican frogs. At most, I think I may recall a blue streak going up the center of the belly, but not covering the entire belly like with the Nicaraguan pumilio.


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## thedude (Nov 28, 2007)

MonarchzMan said:


> I do not remember the blue belly being very common in the Costa Rican frogs. At most, I think I may recall a blue streak going up the center of the belly, but not covering the entire belly like with the Nicaraguan pumilio.


heres a belly shot of one of my costa rican BJs. look anything like the ones you have seen?


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## MonarchzMan (Oct 23, 2006)

Yea, that would be what I remember. Mostly blue around the groin area, and occasionally extending to the chest, but never to the extent of what I've seen in the Nicaraguan ones.


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