| Gastrotheca pseustes | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Order: | Anura |
| Family: | Hemiphractidae |
| Genus: | Gastrotheca |
| Species: | G. pseustes |
| Binomial name | |
| Gastrotheca pseustes Duellman, 1987 | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
The San Lucas marsupial frog, liar marsupial frog, or rana marsupial mentirosa (Gastrotheca pseustes) is a frog. It lives in Ecuador.
The adult male frog can be 38.3–54.4 mm from nose to rear end and the adult female frog 36.0–62.4 mm. The frogs in this species do not all look the same. For most of these frogs, the skin of the back is green in color with brown or darker green marks. They can also be gray or brown with dark brown or bronze marks. They can be green with black or brown marks. They can be brown with green marks. They can be all brown or all yellow-green. The sides of the body can be gray or bronze in color with some blue-green color or blue-gray color. The places where the four legs meet the body can have bright blue marks. The belly is white, cream-white, gray, or other colors. It can have gray or black marks. The iris of the eye is gold or bronze in color with black lines.
Scientists gave this frog the Latin name puestes for "lying" or "liar" because it looks like G. riobambe but it is not. Scientists used to think these two frog species were the same, but they are not.
This frog lives in cloud forests that have never been cut down, in forests that are growing back, in places where animals eat grass and in paramo grassy places. Scientists have seen the frog between 2,200 and 4,708 m (7,218 and 15,446 ft) above sea level.
Scientists have seen this frog in some protected places: Reserva Ecológica Antisana, Parque Nacional Cotopaxi, Parque Nacional Llanganates, Reserva de Producción Faunística Chimborazo, Parque Nacional Sangay, and Parque Nacional Cajas.
The female frog carries her eggs in a bag of skin on her back. She brings the tadpoles to quiet water. The female can carry 49-197 eggs at a time. The eggs are about 4.5 mm across.
Scientists from the IUCN say this frog is in some danger of danger of dying out. Human beings change the places where the frog lives, for example to grow pine trees from other parts of the world, but this does not always kill the frog. Bad chemicals from farms can hurt the tadpoles. Scientists have seen that the dangerous disease chytridiomycosis can make this frog sick.
