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This newly-discovered pea-sized frog was found in Borneo. (Prof. Indraneil Das/Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation)
A pea-sized frog—one of the tiniest ever found—has been discovered on the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia, according to a study.
Scientists at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak who made the discovery noted that the frog Microhyla nepenthicola is smaller than any found in Asia, Europe, or Africa.
“The new species is an obligate of the pitcher plant Nepenthes ampullaria, breeding in senescent or mature pitchers, and is the Old World’s smallest frog and one of the tiniest,” the report, published in the taxonomy journal Zootaxa, stated.
The frog was named after the plant it uses for breeding purposes. Female frogs place their eggs inside the plant’s pitcher and tadpoles thrive in the pitcher's liquid.
The minute amphibians, found near a mountain in Kubah National Park, range in size from 10.6 millimeters to 12.8 millimeters.
"I saw some specimens in museum collections that are over 100 years old. Scientists presumably thought they were juveniles of other species, but it turns out they are adults of this newly-discovered micro species," Dr. Indraneil Das, of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, said in a press release.
He published the report with Alexander Haas of the Biozentrum Grindel und Zoologisches Museum of Hamburg, Germany.