Telmatobius culeus
| Telmatobius culeus | |
|---|---|
| At the Vancouver Aquarium | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Order: | Anura |
| Family: | Telmatobiidae |
| Genus: | Telmatobius |
| Species: | T. culeus |
| Binomial name | |
| Telmatobius culeus (Garman, 1876) | |
| Synonyms | |
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Telmatobius culeus, commonly known as the Titicaca water frog or Lake Titicaca frog, is a medium-large to very large and endangered species of frog in the family Telmatobiidae. It is entirely aquatic and found only in the Lake Titicaca basin, including rivers that flow into it and smaller connected lakes like Arapa, Lagunillas and Saracocha, in the Andean highlands of Bolivia and Peru. In reference to its excessive amounts of skin, it is sometimes jokingly referred to as the Titicaca scrotum frog.
It is closely related to the more widespread and semiaquatic marbled water frog (T. marmoratus), which also occurs in shallow, coastal parts of Lake Titicaca, but lacks the excessive skin and it is generally smaller (although overlapping in size with some forms of the Titicaca water frog).