# 2 new species



## ETwomey (Jul 22, 2004)

http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2008/f/z01823p024f.pdf

red-headed fantasticus has a new name.

-Evan


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## markbudde (Jan 4, 2008)

Congrats! It bet it feels great to have your work accepted. What are the species names?


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## Corpus Callosum (Apr 7, 2007)

So which ones are the R. benedicta and which are R. summersi (assuming those keywords are the new species) ?


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## tkromer (Dec 20, 2007)

Yeah I didn't see where it says which is which either. Congrats on your work though


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## ETwomey (Jul 22, 2004)

Ranitomeya benedicta is the 'red-headed fantastica', which popped up on this forum once around 2005. Sweetest frog ever, I will try to get some pictures up on dendrobates.org when I can. There are at least two morphs of this frog, one of them has a bright red head with solid blue legs and a black dorsum. Ranitomeya summersi is the Sauce fantastica, otherwise known as the yellow banded morph. Feel free to email myself or Jason Brown for the pdf.

-Evan


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## Corpus Callosum (Apr 7, 2007)

Found this picture of benedicta on zootaxa's page


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## Mywebbedtoes (Jul 2, 2007)

You weren't kiding about the sweetest frog ever!


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## iljjlm (Mar 5, 2006)

Are these currently in the hobby? I do not mean, "oh, where can I get those?" question, but I would like to know if this is something that people are breeding now and need to change the names of their frogs. I have never seen the R. benedicta for sale or pictures, but not sure about the R. summersi. Sure look amazing though.
-Dave


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## Brian Ferriera (Nov 1, 2006)

iljjlm said:


> Are these currently in the hobby? I do not mean, "oh, where can I get those?" question, but I would like to know if this is something that people are breeding now and need to change the names of their frogs. I have never seen the R. benedicta for sale or pictures, but not sure about the R. summersi. Sure look amazing though.
> -Dave


If I am understanding this right Ranitomeya summersi where what we been calling yellow fant's Benedicta has yet to be brought in legally.
Brian


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## ETwomey (Jul 22, 2004)

Brian Ferriera said:


> iljjlm said:
> 
> 
> > Are these currently in the hobby? I do not mean, "oh, where can I get those?" question, but I would like to know if this is something that people are breeding now and need to change the names of their frogs. I have never seen the R. benedicta for sale or pictures, but not sure about the R. summersi. Sure look amazing though.
> ...


Yes, that is correct. Although last I heard, the germans had found R. benedicta so it probably won't be long until they show up at Hamm. Also, this paper will unfortunately give them some localities to work with, so I would be surprised if they are not all over Europe within a year. Poor Mark is probably about to be inundated with emails...

R. summersi has been around for a while, and they are pretty distinctive, so people probably won't have any trouble figuring out which species they have. Our paper should be really helpful in this regard, we included several plates in the appendix with a ton of pictures of frogs from different localities.

-Evan


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

Corpus Callosum said:


> Found this picture of benedicta on zootaxa's page



stunning frog! when are these coming in?


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## markpulawski (Nov 19, 2004)

Yes I have heard the Germans have cut down a lot of trees and quite a few Benedicta are now in Europe. 
The good news is It should be available here in the states this fall through SNDF @ $600 per frog. A high price yes but from what I understand what it took to collect the founding stock worth every penny.....and yes legal with funds supporting habitat protection.


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## Mywebbedtoes (Jul 2, 2007)

Do these guys really hack down trees? Sounds like Orchid smugglers of old (and present probably).

While I can't afford $600 a piece, kudos to those who do it right.


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## markpulawski (Nov 19, 2004)

Yes in arboreal species which I understand Benedicta is they just go to where they occur and start cutting down trees. Same thing happened with Arboreous and Vincentei in Panama, that's why they ended up with so many neat morphs in Europe, nothing could escape total destruction of the habitat. Most of the people doing it right don't end up with the diversity because in order to protect the habitat it makes it impossible to collect certain animals.


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## Mywebbedtoes (Jul 2, 2007)

That is insane. Looks like I need to update my "My Problem With Imports" thread to include habitat destruction.

It sure is nice to have you UE folks around.


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## markpulawski (Nov 19, 2004)

Smuggling is bad enough when it undermines work like Mark Pepper is doing but when they destroy the habitat in the process and much of the future of these animals in their native habitat it is mind boggling. 
Hope these smugglers had a chance to stop in Africa and shoot a couple of Rhinos' on the way!


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## Corpus Callosum (Apr 7, 2007)

Can anyone who has this paper email it to me? thanks..


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## uncle tom (Mar 15, 2007)

Hi Folks
the german smugglers did not find the frogs and did not cut down trees. They bought the frogs from an peruvian dealer. I met this guy on my last trip to Peru in Iquitos. I better say that he found me. He came into my hotel and asked me if I was interested to buyin frogs. He had a big catalogue with pictures of all nice frogs (including mysteriosus, captivus and benedicta). He told me that he is working with a lot of peruvian campensinos which are collecting frogs for him. Also he told me that he worked together with some Germans (the smugglers) which are coming periodical to Lima. His buisuiness include transportation to Lima. The german guys who sold captivus and benedicta never went to the biotops but only to Lima and only take over the frogs that they ordered before. So the story with the tree cutting Germans is not true  but in fact these frogs are in Germany. I saw them in Hamm in April. 

But by the way, the peruvian dealer not sells frogs exclusive to Germans . He also had sold some of these frogs to Americans.


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## markpulawski (Nov 19, 2004)

My info came from a very reputable source working with the peru projects, in the case of Benedicta these frogs were so difficult to collect on the ground they nearly could not get enough for a founding group. So for the European "importers" a significant cutting was done to collect enough animals. Sorry Uncle Tom you are right in my incorrect use of German smugglers, I have no idea what European countries took most of these frogs. 
As for European "imports" of Vincentei and Arborious, the same method was employed. Perhaps due to the difficult nature of collecting arborial frogs the campasino's cut down the trees so that enough animals are made available. I would guess US interests are at play here as well however frogs of this nature have not been shown or made available through US channels, only as imports from Europe.


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## uncle tom (Mar 15, 2007)

Hi Mark
So I will believe that it is necesrary to cut down the trees to collecting them but it was not done by the Germans. Peruvian guys (maybe the same who worked together with the officials?) made this job. The last "Import" contained frogs like mysteriosus, captivus, benedicta, reticulata, flavovittata, imitator "Jerebros"and others. You need a lot of time to visit all the biotops and collect the frogs and the Germans never have had the time to do this job. And the dealer also told me that he worked for INIBICO before but now he founded his own buisiness. I agree with you in some parts in the O. vicentei buisiness. To find these frogs is very hard. Most populations are living high up in the trees. But not all. I found large ground livig populations near Santa Fe and El Cope and also on the Carribean side there are report from ground living populations. And also local kids are very good in collecting them by climbing up the trees. But at least it is not as easy like collecting pumilio and I agree with you that the "importers" need help from local people. Normally you could not carry on a power saw in your backpack and to cut down the trees with a small travelling saw is not a funny thing  . It is the same thing: Local people sell the frogs to Smugglers. In this bad buisiness only money rules the world an a fallen tree is only one more fallen tree. 

By the way, I think to describe O. arboreus Myers & Daly also cuted down some trees .

Tommy


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## markpulawski (Nov 19, 2004)

I agree uncle tom all for a quick buck......like corporate America, pay me today and i'll worry about tomorrow.....tomorrow. It's just depresing to see someone doing the hard work and doing it the right way (Understory) knowing that their efforts if given the time will supply the hobby's needs without much enviromental impact. Look at the inibico Variabilis and imitators, enough to supply the world out of a couple hundred frogs, same with many of the thumbs. But conversly some are much more of a challenge in getting qty's of offspring. The banded intermedius comes to mind as does Retics and few other species will fall in this category. These frogs would in my opinion need to be managed even more closely. 
As always people only want what they don't have or can't get and as long as they want it there will be someone there to provide it without regard to cost.


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## Brian Ferriera (Nov 1, 2006)

markpulawski said:


> Yes I have heard the Germans have cut down a lot of trees and quite a few Benedicta are now in Europe.
> The good news is It should be available here in the states this fall through SNDF @ $600 per frog. A high price yes but from what I understand what it took to collect the founding stock worth every penny.....and yes legal with funds supporting habitat protection.


Hopefully the red / orange imitators will be a little more in my price range... corse if not I can let every one else breed them first  .
Brian


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## bobberly1 (Jul 16, 2008)

Someone better get abreedin'!


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## chuckpowell (May 12, 2004)

Is it possible to get a pdf of the description? If so I'm very interested. In the same journal there are a number of other new Dendrobatid descriptions:

Zootaxa 1757: 49-65 (28 Apr. 2008) 6 plates; 34 references Accepted: 10 Mar. 2008
A partial revision of the Ameerega hahneli complex (Anura: Dendrobatidae) and a new cryptic species from the East-Andean versant of Central Peru?Evan Twomey & JASON L. BROWN (USA) 

Zootaxa 1638: 59-68 (14 Nov. 2007) 6 plates; 13 references Accepted: 3 Sep. 2007
A new species of poison frog (Amphibia: Dendrobatidae) from the Andean mountains of Tolima, Colombia?MANUEL HERNANDO BERNAL, VICTOR FABIO LUNA-MORA,OSCAR GALLEGO & ALONSO QUEVEDO (Colombia) 

Zootaxa 1555: 21-38 (20 Aug. 2007) 8 plates; 30 references Accepted: 28 Jun. 2007
A new species of Allobates (Anura: Aromobatidae: Allobatinae) exhibiting a novel reproductive behaviour?PHILIPPE J. R. KOK (Belgium) & RAFFAEL ERNST (Germany) 

Zootaxa 1555: 39-51 (20 Aug. 2007) 8 plates; 23 references Accepted: 2 Jun. 2007
A new, toxic species of Colostethus (Anura: Dendrobatidae: Colostethinae) from the Cordillera Central of Colombia?TARAN GRANT (Brazil)

If anyone has pdf's of these also, please contact me.

Best,

Chuck


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## markbudde (Jan 4, 2008)

This may be helpful.


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