(Photograph by Renoir Auguste). Barbour's thin-toed ditch frog (
Leptodactylus insularum) is widely found across South America. In Trinidad, though, records of this frog are mostly only from southwest Trinidad - near Icacos and Cedros (
Murphy et al. 2018). Or so we thought? Recently, the frog has been observed (by me) in southeast Trinidad - at the same locality over both wet season in August 2021 and the dry season in May 2022. This suggests that a stable population occurs there, in addition to the population in southwest Trinidad. This is a native frog species that feeds on insects. They have also been found to have important antimicrobial properties in their skin, thus offering potential medical importance to people. Greater appreciation and effort are needed to protect this elusive frog from southern Trinidad. To learn more about the frogs found in Trinidad and Tobago, and why they are important to the environment and people, check out the Field Guide to the Amphibians and Reptiles of Trinidad and Tobago (
link).
