Ameerega smaragdina from Rio Iscozacin in south-central Peru. Photo by Jason Brown.

Distribution

Central Peru, eastern foothills of the Cordillera Azul. This species is known only from its original type locality, the Iscozacin valley northeast of Oxapampa, 380 m elevation. View type locality in Google Maps.

Natural history

This species appears to be most active around dusk, when males can be heard calling vigorously from the leaf litter. Tadpoles were found in small pools formed in a nearly-dry creek bed and in small puddles throughout the forest floor.

Call recording

Conservation status

Fragile. This species is only know from its type locality, although it may be more widely distributed.

Notes

Silverstone (1976) used the lack of ventral marbling in A. smaragdina as a character to diagnose it from A. petersi. However, Brown and Twomey (2009) noted that some populations of A. petersi (based on genetics) also lack this ventral marbling. This species is thus nearly indistinguishable from A. petersi, and at present is only known from near the type locality. Further study may indicate that A. smaragdina is in fact synonymous with A. petersi.