Ecuadorian Espadarana Glassfrog

Espadarana prosoblepon - El Oro Province, Ecuador

 

A couple years ago I spent ~6 months working in Southern Ecuador, however a few short weeks into my stay there I had serious camera issues which affected the rest of my images for the months to come. I was thrilled to get a chance to visit again the next year in order to photograph some of the inhabitants of the area with working equipment! This is one of the species I was glad to take another shot at, Espadarana proseblepon. This is the most common species of glassfrog in the area and throughout most of its extensive range but its a great little frog. Glassfrogs get their name from the transparency which is not that impressive in this species, however you can still see its greenish blue bones in certain portions of its body, particularly in the humeral spines which are the bony projections from the armpits. Only male glassfrogs of certain species have these, they're thought to be used in bouts of wrestling with other male glassfrogs.

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