Anomaloglossus kaiei

A. kaiei displays cryptic coloration. Their dorsal ground color is medium brown, with a wide black band running laterally from its snout tip around the body and a thin, white, partially-interrupted dorsolateral stripe situated immediately above the black band. The frog's upper lip bar, chin, and flank are a dirty white color, with a few white or light blue dots speckled throughout. Its iris is a metallic reddish bronze. Fingers I and II are equal in length when appressed, and Finger IV reaches the distal subarticular tubercle on Finger III when appressed. There is moderate webbing between the toes and lateral fringes on the fingertips. It has a median lingual process shared by other related species found throughout the Guiana Shield, but no oblique lateral stripe, ventrolateral stripe, black armband, or cloacal tubercles.[3]

Adult males have an average snout-vent length of 18.9 mm and all fingers are slightly swollen. Their throats are a light grayish-pink, with dark spotting to stippling that extends down to their chest that never completely covers their throat. Their stomachs are a whitish color with sparse dark stippling. Testis are white, unpigmented.[3]

Adult females have an average snout-vent length of 19.8 mm. Their throats are a pure yellow. Their stomachs are orangish-yellow and absent of melanophores.[3]

Tadpoles are dark brown to near-black on their body and the top of their head. Their lateral head appears as light purple. In fact, this region is transparent; the purple coloration is a result of visible blood vessels in the skin. Its posterior body is gray and significantly mottled with dark brown coloration. Fins are transparent.[3]

After being kept in preservative for 2 months, most of the frog's coloration changes to a grayish brown and ventral areas become white. Black bands and spots remain visible.[3]

A. kaiei has only been reported from Guyana in the Kaieteur National Park, but is found throughout the Pakaraima Mountains in the Guiana Shield in South America.[3] This species lives mainly in primary forest but can also tolerate disturbed forest. Their distribution is commonly found at ranges between 150 m and 450 m above sea level, but has also been found up to 1,060 m above sea level.[3][5] A. kaiei is not a migrant species and is native to the Guiana Shield.[5]

Originally classified as Colostethus kaiei which is now a basionym, A. kaiei is most closely related to A. beebei, A. roraima, and A. praderoi.[6][7] This species lives sympatrically with A. beebei throughout Kaieteur National Park and related areas; the two species share a last common ancestor 6-12 million years ago.[8][9]

A. kaiei frogs are diurnal and terrestrial, not limited to areas near and surrounding bodies of water. Males are territorial and defend territories for several weeks at a time to attract mates. Their territories are found on the forest floor and spatially distinct from reproductive habitats.[7][10][3]

A. kaiei males call at an average dominant frequency of 4.85 kHz and an average pulse rate of 7.21 pulses per second, described as cricket-like chirps.[3][9] Their calls have an average note duration of 31.69 ms, average intranote duration of 106.92 ms, and average internote duration of 923.15 ms. One study found the mean number of calls in 1 minute produced by A. kaiei as 74, with a range of 49–101.[3] Due to the sympatric relation with A. beebei, the pulse rate and dominant frequency of A. kaiei calls have been suggested to pose a limitation on selection pressures for the calls of A. beebei, as selection should tend towards signal divergence for closely related sympatric species.[11]

Males exhibit 3 distinct call types: advertisement calls, described as a series of 1-2 short pulses; aggressive calls, described as longer overall calls that initiate with a string of multiple rapid advertisement calls followed by a long train of pulses, and courtship calls.[12][13] More recently, researchers identified a fourth type of call, the pseudo-aggressive call, which consists first of several rapid advertisement calls, followed by a 3-pulse call.[10]

A. kaiei tadpoles mainly feed on detritus found in their habitat pools. This species is facultatively oophagous, with females delivering trophic eggs to their offspring that likely facilitates faster growth and development, which in turn lessens the potential of predation, risk of desiccation, and possibility for cannibalism. In fact, crabs have been commonly observed visiting pools containing tadpoles.[3] There is little information currently available on the diet of adult A. kaiei frogs.

A. kaiei males hold calling and mating territories on the forest floor for up to several weeks. Breeding activity is the most abundant during the rainy season, from May to July. Males were observed making advertisement calls for all studied months from April to August, with calling rates significantly greater in March and April, prior to the peak of breeding season.[10]

As of date, there is a lack of information on the courtship behaviors and rituals, ovipositioning, and mating behaviors and positions of A. kaiei.

A. kaiei are terrestrial breeders, which is the ancestral state in the Aromobatidae family.[18] Females deposit fertilized eggs on the underside of dead leaves on the forest floor in the calling territory of the male. Upon hatching into tadpoles, males are responsible for transporting the tadpoles from their calling territories to outside appropriate sites for rearing young, which are typically pools of water found on the forest floor or in the phytotelmata of bromeliad plants. It is not uncommon to find tadpoles of multiple fathers sharing the same pool of water.[10][17]