Guide to the frogs of the Iquitos region, Amazonian Peru

Abstract

About 4,000 species of frogs are recognized worldwide; nearly 1 ,600 of these live in South America, where the greatest number of species occur in the Amazon rainforest and in the humid montane forests on the slopes of the Andes. More than 80 species have been found at single sites in the upper Amazon Basin in Ecuador and Peru; nowhere else in the world is the frog fauna more diverse. For comparison, this number is about equal to all of the species known in the United States and Canada and more than three times the number of species known from all of Europe. The Iquitos region has a tremendous diversity of frogs, and recent investigations have discovered five species not previously known from that region, as well as some species that are new to science. Herein we present accounts of 1 12 species of frogs known from the Iquitos region; 1 1 1 of these are illustrated in color. This guide is designed for use by amateur naturalists and professional herpetologists—anyone interested in identifying adult frogs or larvae from the region and learning something about their natural history