Ammon News - A team of researchers has rediscovered a frog species which has not been seen in more than 130 years. First described in 1902, Alsodes vittatus had evaded detection since then, despite multiple search efforts. The researchers discovered two populations of the frog at the southeastern end of the ancient Hacienda San Ignacio de Pemehue in La Araucanía Region, Chile.

The rediscovery is an important milestone for South American herpetology and the conservation of biodiversity in the southern cone.

The frog Alsodes vittatus is an elusive creature—described in 1902, it managed to go undetected for more than a century. Now, after a decade of investigation, a research team has rediscovered it, in its first sighting in 130 years.

Researchers from the Laboratory of Systematics and Conservation of Herpetozoa (SyCoH) of the University of Concepción, Chile—Dr. Claudio Correa, engineer of renewable natural resources Edvin Riveros Riffo, and biologist Juan Pablo Donoso, have published their extraordinary discovery in the journal ZooKeys.

Alsodes vittatus was scientifically described in 1902 by Rodulfo Amando Philippi, a German naturalist living in Chile. French entomologist Philibert Germain had discovered the species in 1893 at the former Hacienda San Ignacio de Pemehue in La Araucanía Region, Chile, and brought three specimens to Philippi for description. Since then, no one has seen the species again, despite multiple search efforts.

Between 1995 and 2002, several researchers unsuccessfully tried to find it in the Pemehue area, at the northwestern end of the former estate.