FROG THE SIZE OF A PEA DISCOVERED IN BORNEO

Frog the size of a pea discovered in Borneo

A frog the size of a pea has been discovered on the South-East Asian island of Borneo.

Microhyla nepenthicola, shown here on the tip of a pencil, is about the size of a pea Photo: PROF. INDRANEIL DAS/INSTITUTE OF BIODIVERSITY & ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION

Microhyla nepenthicola, which was named after a plant on the island, is the smallest frog discovered in Asia, Africa or Europe.

Adult males of the new micro-species range in size from 10.6 and 12.8 millimetres, according to the taxonomy magazine Zootaxa.

Indraneil Das of the Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation at the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak said the sub-species had originally been mis-identified in museums.

"Scientists presumably thought they were juveniles of other species, but it turns out they are adults of this newly-discovered micro species," he said.

They caught them by making them jump on a white cloth near the pitcher plants.

The tubular plants are carnivorous, killing insects such as ants, but do not harm the frogs. Tadpoles grow in the liquid inside the plants.

He added that the discovery should encourage efforts to protect the biological diversity in Borneo's rain forests.

Mr Das published the paper with Alexander Haas of the Biozentrum Grindel und Zoologisches Museum of Hamburg, Germany.

The tiny frogs were found on the edge of a road leading to the summit of the Gunung Serapi mountain in the Kubah National Park in the Malaysian state of Sarawak.

The scientists said they tracked the frogs by their call, a series of "harsh rasping notes" that started at sundown.

They then made the frogs jump onto a piece of white cloth to study them.

The find was part of a global search being undertaken by Conservation International and International Union for Conservation of Nature's Amphibian Specialist Group to "rediscover" 100 species of lost amphibians.

The world's smallest frog is believed to be the Eleutherodactylus iberia, which can be found in southern Cuba. Adult males have a snout vent length of just 9.8 mm; females are 10.5 mm.