The red-rimmed leaf frog, Phyllomedusa boliviana, is a large green hylid treefrog inhabiting tropical dry forests and rainforest edges in an altitudinal range of 200-1800 m asl. in the Amazonian slopes of the Bolivian Andes, northern Argentina, southwestern Brazil and probably Paraguay (Brusquetti and Lavilla 2006).Faivovich et al. 2005 and Barrio-Amorós (2006) place it in the P. tarsius group (as cited in Frost 2015).Research is needed to determine whether this name includes multiple species.While its population appears stable and it is reported as common throughout its range, its habitats are vulnerable to degradation as a result of encroaching agriculture and wood-gathering (De la Riva et al. 2010). This degradation is especially a threat to arboreal breeding sites and water sources for larval development.Argentinian populations are particularly vulnerable to considerable habitat loss there (Vaira 2001).
Nocturnal and terrestrial, adults males are territorial and use visual leg-stretching signals along with call alerts as aggressive warnings before engaging in male-to-male combat (Jansen and Köhler 2008) for breeding sites. Males call for females from tree perches 35-200 cm from the ground, individually or in small choruses.Mating occurs on leaves on the outer leaves of shrubs hanging over water (Vaila reports that amplectant pairs regularly fall into water and need to return to an oviposition spot to resume mating).Females lay clutches of about 200 eggs onto leaves they fold into “nests” glued together with a mass of eggless capsules.These capsules contain water that keeps eggs hydrated until hatching, when tadpoles drop into the water below (Vaira 2001; Jansen and Köhler 2008; De la Riva et al. 2010).
Artificial breeding ponds such as those developed in Parque Nacional Calilegua, Argentina, that allow for oviposition habitats may be a valuable tool for conservation of P. boliviana and other leaf-breeding species that require specific combination of water sources near appropriate foliage (Vaila 2001).
Vaira, M. 2001. Breeding biology of the leaf frog, Phyllomedusa boliviana (Anura, Hylidae). Amphibia-Reptilia: 421-429.
Jansen, M. and Köhler, J. 2008. Intraspecific combat behavior of Phyllomedusa boliviana (Anura: Hylidae) and the possible origin of visual signaling in nocturnal treefrogs. Herpetological Review 39(3): 290-293.
