A Frog Species Has Been Hiding in Plain Sight for Over a Century—Researchers Finally Named It

Evolutionary biologist Santiago Ron and colleagues at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador formally described the Milpe robber frog (Pristimantis milpe) in a study published July 24, 2026 in ZooKeys. The species was hiding in plain sight across 16 million acres of Chocó forests in western Ecuador and southern Colombia—one of the most widespread Pristimantis species in the Pacific basin—but had been mistakenly identified as the Salidero robber frog for over a century. The frogs are easy to detect due to a mating call that sounds like a smoke detector chirp.