Am fib be us

The caption for the picture on page 69 of the September ’06 issue reads, “The smallest frog in the world is this Golden Mantella. It is found only in Madagascar.”

The Golden Mantella is, indeed, found only in Madagascar. However, the smallest frog in the Southern Hemisphere is the Gold Frog, or Brazilian Psyllophryne didactyla, at 9.8mm in body length (with legs drawn in). Equally small is the smallest frog in the Northern Hemisphere, discovered in 1996 on the island of Cuba. It has no common name yet, but its scientific name is Eleutherodactylus iberia.

I have held many of the so-called “poison frogs” found throughout the Amazon rainforest, and these tiny creatures often max out at only one centimeter, even when fully grown.

PAUL L. WATTS
San Carlos, CA