Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
Single word	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Pristimantis ornatissimus (Despax, 1911)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Superfamily: Brachycephaloidea > Family: Craugastoridae > Subfamily: Pristimantinae > Genus: Pristimantis > Species: Pristimantis ornatissimus

Eleutherodactylus ornatissimus — Stejneger, 1904, Annu. Rep. U.S. Natl. Mus. for 1902: 582-583, by implication; Guibé, 1950 "1948", Cat. Types Amph. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat.: 29.

Hylodes ornatissimus Despax, 1911, Bull. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. Paris, 17: 91. Holotype: MNHNP 1906.264, according to Guibé, 1950 "1948", Cat. Types Amph. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat.: 29. Type locality: "Equateur" (= Ecuador).

Eleutherodactylus (Eleutherodactylus) ornatissimus — Lynch, 1996, in Powell and Henderson (eds.), Contr. W. Indian Herpetol.: 154; Lynch and Duellman, 1997, Univ. Kansas Mus. Nat. Hist. Spec. Publ., 23: 229.

Pristimantis ornatissimus — Heinicke, Duellman, and Hedges, 2007, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Suppl. Inform., 104: Table 2.

Pristimantis (Pristimantis) ornatissimus — Hedges, Duellman, and Heinicke, 2008, Zootaxa, 1737: 128.

Common Names

Ornate Rainfrog (Arteaga-Navarro, Bustamante, and Guayasamin, 2013, Amph. Rept. Mindo: 79).

Most Beautiful' Rainfrog (Coloma and Duellman, 2025, Amph. Ecuador. Vol. 3: xxxvi).

Cutín Hermosísimo (Spanish: Coloma and Duellman, 2025, Amph. Ecuador. Vol. 3: xxxvi).

Ornate Robber Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 77).

Distribution

Elevations of 280–1100 m in the Chocoan lowlands and adjacent foothills of northwestern Ecuador (Carchi, Esmeraldas, Pichinca, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, and Cotopaxi provinces), to Municipio Barbacoas, Corregimiento Junín, Departamento Nariño, Colombia.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Colombia, Ecuador

Comment

Redescribed by Lynch, 1970, Trans. Kansas Acad. Sci., 73: 173-177. See account by Lynch and Duellman, 1997, Univ. Kansas Mus. Nat. Hist. Spec. Publ., 23: 120-121, who considered it in the Eleutherodactylus (Eleutherodactylus) martinicensis series, Eleutherodactylus unistrigatus group. In the Pristimantis (Pristimantis) unistrigatus species group of Hedges, Duellman, and Heinicke, 2008, Zootaxa, 1737: 128. Not assignable to a species group according to Padial, Grant, and Frost, 2014, Zootaxa, 3825: 127. See photograph, map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status (as Eleutherodactylus ornatissimus) in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 363. Arteaga-Navarro, Bustamante, and Guayasamin, 2013, Amph. Rept. Mindo: 79–80, provided an account and dot map for Ecuador. Guayasamin, Hutter, Tapia, Culebras, Peñafiel, Pyron, Morochz, Funk, and Arteaga-Navarro, 2017, PLoS One, 12(3:e0172615): 1–22, recognized Pristimantis ecuadorensis out of the former range of Pristimantis ornatissimus, restricting the range of the latter to elevations of < 1100 m. Reported from Municipio Barbacoas, Corregimiento Junín, Departamento Nariño, Colombia (photo vouchers only, so requiring confirmation) by Luna and Barrio-Amorós, 2023, Reptiles & Amphibians, 30 (e18269): 1–2. Coloma and Duellman, 2025, Amph. Ecuador. Vol. 3: 290–291, provided an account with photographs which summarized morphological identification, systematics, natural history, distribution (including a dot map for Ecuador), and conservation.

External links:

Please note: these links will take you to external websites not affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History. We are not responsible for their content.

For access to general information see Wikipedia
For additional sources of general information from other websites search Google
For access to relevant technical literature search Google Scholar
For images search CalPhoto Images and Google Images
To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist
For additional information specific to Ecuador see FaunaWebEcuador: Anfibios del Ecuador