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Family : BUFONIDAE
Species : Ansonia latidisca
Size (snout to vent) : up to 50 mm

Toads of the genus Ansonia are typified by slender, flattened bodies, spindly legs, minimal toe webbing, abundant tubercles and large eyes. 

Ansonia latidisca (Bornean Rainbow Toad, Sambas Stream Toad) is an elusive Bornean endemic which inhabits montane moist tropical forest from around 1000 metres elevation.

This frog is mottled bright green, brown and purple-brown, with green bars on the front limbs; this provides effective camouflage on mossy tree bark, making the toad hard to find.

This species was not encountered by herpetologists for 87 years, until being rediscovered 2 metres up in trees in primary montane forest in western Sarawak in 2011, by Pui Yong Min and others from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Min et al, 2011).

As a result of the rarity of this species, very little is known of its ecology.

Fig 1 : Example from Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo found in primary forest at night at around 1000 metres elevation. 

Fig 2 : Hill and lower montane forest on a mountain peak, part of Gunung Penrissen (= Mount Penrissen) in the highlands region of western Sarawak; this sandstone/limestone feature is near the border with Kalimantan (i.e. Indonesian Borneo).

Photos thanks to Sankar Ananthanarayanan.


References and links :

Min, P. Y., Jet, O. J., & Das, I. (2011). Rediscovery of one of the world’s top 10 most wanted ‘Lost Frogs’, Ansonia latidisca, the Bornean Rainbow Toad, on Gunung Penrissen, Western Sarawak, Borneo. FrogLog, 6.