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

Bolitoglossa chica Brame and Wake, 1963

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Plethodontidae > Subfamily: Hemidactyliinae > Genus: Bolitoglossa > Species: Bolitoglossa chica

Bolitoglossa chica Brame and Wake, 1963, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 69: 16. Holotype: James A. Peters 4366, by original designation, now presumably in USNM). Type locality: "grounds of the Hotel Zaracay, 2 km. E of Santo Domingo, 670 meters (2200 feet), Provincia de Pichincha, Ecuador".

Bolitoglossa (Eladinea) chica — Parra-Olea, García-París, and Wake, 2004, Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 81: 336.

Common Names

Tiny Mushroom Tongue Salamander (Coloma and Duellman, 2025, Amph. Ecuador. Vol. 4: xxxi).

Salamandra Apulmonada Minúscula (Spanish: Coloma and Duellman, 2025, Amph. Ecuador. Vol. 4: xxxi).

Hotel Zaracay Salamander (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 29).

Hotel Zaracay Mushroomtongue Salamander (Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 742).

Distribution

Coastal region of Ecuador (Esmeraldas, Pichinca, Manabí, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, and Cotopaxi provinces) north to the Reserva Natural La Planada, 1650 m elevation, Nariño, Colombia, 14 to 1082 m elevation.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Colombia, Ecuador

Comment

In the Bolitoglossa (Eladinea) adspersa group of Parra-Olea, García-París, and Wake, 2004, Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 81: 336; formerly in the Bolitoglossa sima group of Wake and Lynch, 1976, Sci. Bull. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 25: 1-65. Crump, 1978 "1977", Herpetologica, 33: 415-426, discussed diagnostic features and habitat preference. Schargel and Rivas-Fuenmayor, 2003, Herpetozoa, Wien, 16: 94-96, reported the Colombia record. See photograph, map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 556. Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 341, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 742, provided an account summarizing systematics, life history, population status, and distribution (including a polygon map). Coloma and Duellman, 2025, Amph. Ecuador. Vol. 4: 357–359, provided an account, with photographs, which summarized identification, morphology, 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