The Neglected Nursery Frog is a member of the family Microhylidae. The body is smooth, brown or orange-brown above, sometimes with darker flecks on the back and a narrow black bar below a faint supratympanic fold, and there is occasionally a narrow pale vertebral line. The ventral surface is smooth and pale and flecked with brown. It is a squat short limbed species, with poorly developed toe discs that are barely wider than the phalanges. It is one of the largest of the Cophixalus species, with a mean adult mass of 1.3 grams and snout-to-vent length up to 23 Cophixalus neglectus (Neglected Nursery Frog) Conservation Advice Page 2 of 9 mm in males and 29 mm in females. The male call is a buzzing sound with an average duration of about half a second. The eggs of microhylids are relatively large and are laid in very moist soil or vegation. The tadpole develops inside the egg and when it has completed metamorphosis it hatches from the egg as a fully formed froglet. Clutches of eggs of the Neglected Nursery Frog contain between 10 to 19 eggs.
Neglected Frog |
Cophixalus neglectus
Status: Critically Endangered on the EPBC Act list
Government evidence of impact of climate change:
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Australian Government, Conservation Advice, Cophixalus neglectus
Threats Threats to the Neglected Nursery Frog include climate change; habitat degradation and introduced species.
Changes in hydrology and other effects of climate change (e.g. reduction in food supply) may also alter the susceptibility of frogs to disease; but these impacts are likely to be variable among species and sites (DoEE 2016). 2.0 Habitat loss and degradation 2.1 Clearing; Known potential Feral pigs are responsible for habitat damage trampling; and potentially cause adult frog mortality fragmentation; (Richards et al. 1993). altered 3.0 Invasive species 3.1 Yellow Crazy Known potential Yellow crazy ants spray formic acid to Ants subdue prey; which causes burns and (Anoplolepis irritates the skin and eyes of animals.
Given that significant threats such as climate change would likely impact the entire area virtually at once; the species can be considered to be contained at a single location (IUCN Standards and Petitions Subcommittee 2017).
A continuing decline in area of occupancy and area; extent and or quality of habitat; and therefore number of mature individuals; may be inferred based on climate change (Shoo 2005 Williams et al. 2003 Williams and Hilbert 2006).