Rare frog species rediscovered after 130 years
A team of researchers have rediscovered a frog species which has not been seen for 130 years.
The frog species Alsodes vittatus was first discovered in 1902 but has not been seen for over a century. After a decade of investigations, a research team has rediscovered it in two populations at the southeastern end of the ancient Hacienda San Ignacio de Pemehue in La Araucanía Region, Chile. The discovery is a huge milestone in South American herpetology and conservation.
The team from the Laboratory of Systematics and Conservation of Herpetozoa (SyCoH) of the University of Concepción, Chile have published the discovery in the journal ZooKeys.
Rediscovery of a species
Alsodes vittatus was described in 1902 by a German naturalist Rodulfo Amando Philippi who was living in Chile. The species had been discovered by French entomologist Philibert Germain in 1893 in the former Hacienda San Ignacio de Pemehue in La Araucanía Region, Chile, and provided three specimens for Philippi to describe. After this, the species was never seen again, despite search efforts being conducted.
Between 1995 and 2002, researchers tried to find Alsodes vittatus in the Pemehue area, at the northwestern end of the former estate. In 2015 and 2016 new expeditions - led by Claudio Correa and Juan Pablo Donoso – located two populations in the same area, but the individuals did not have the yellow or white stripe on their back, suggesting they could belong to a different frog species.
“The main challenge in locating it was the lack of precision in the description of its type locality,” said the researchers. “In Germain's time, the Hacienda San Ignacio de Pemehue was an estate of enormous size, and the naturalist did not specify the exact place where he collected the specimens.”
To be able to find the frogs, Correa and the team reconstructed the route that Germain may have followed in the area by studying historical documents and his publications. In 2023 and 2024 Claudio Correa and Edvin Riveros took the reconstructed route to enter the estate at the southeastern end. They then discovered the two populations of Alsodes vittatus in the Lolco and Portales river basins in La Araucanía region rediscovering the species after 130 years.
A milestone in South American herpetology
The rediscovery is an important milestone for South American herpetology and conservation. Many of the other species of Alsodes are threatened with extinction or so little is known about them, that their status cannot be assessed.
“The rediscovery of A. vittatus allowed us to obtain, more than a century after its description, the first biological and ecological data on the species. Field observations also indicate that this amphibian faces several significant threats and that it could be considered endangered,” the researchers said. “In a broader context, this rediscovery demonstrates the limited biological, evolutionary and biogeographic knowledge of the amphibians that inhabit the southern cone of South America, emphasizing the urgency of their study and conservation.”
News reference:
Lost for more than a century: the rediscovery of Alsodes vittatus (Philippi, 1902) (Anura, Alsodidae), one of the rarest and most elusive amphibians from Chile. Correa, C., Edvin Riveros-Riffo and Donoso, J.P. 6th March 2025.