Scientist discover chocolate frog in New Guinea

A new species of frog, the ‘chocolate
frog’, was discovered in the rainforest swamps of New Guinea by an Australian
scientist. The scientist, Steve Richards, a frog specialist at the South
Australian Museum, first spotted the cocoa-coloured creature in 2016.

“That
could be why it took so long to find this frog,” he said. “It’s swampy, it’s
spiky, there are lots of malaria-carrying mozzies, it floods, there are
crocodiles and not many roads. It’s a really unpleasant place to work.”

After
years of painstaking research and overcoming many hurdles and problems,
Richards managed to grab some specimens of the new species Litoria mira. Except
for its skin color, Litoria Mira is almost identical to the Australian green
tree frog.

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The other physical
differences included subtle patches of lavender behind the chocolate
frog‘s eyes, and it is a little smaller than the Australian green tree frog, at
between 7cm and 8cm when fully mature.

Richards has discovered a
few frog species before in Australia and about 200 in New Guinea.

Richards has discovered
about 200 new species in New Guinea and a few in Australia. He said he knew
when something was new but had to wait for science to stack up for the
chocolate frog.

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He
does not think there was much chance that chocolate frogs could be in Australia
because it lacks the “nasty” lowland swampy rainforests of New Guinea.