Prunus luxurians: A new species of Cherry from southwestern Ecuador.

The genus Prunus has a worldwide distribution and contains several important food crops (including Cherries, Almonds, and Plums), ornametal species (Blossom Cherries), timber souces (e.g. Black Cherry) and medicinal Plants (e.g. African Cherry). There are thought to be about 450 valid species in the genus, but the situation is complicated with about 1230 species described within the genus, and over 2000 more in other genera that have since been synonymised with it (i.e. genera which have had all their putative members moved into Prunus. 

Historically, it has been thought that the majority of Prunus species are found in the northern temperate belt, with a smaller number of species found at high altitudes in tropical and subtropical zones. However, recent research has discovered that the genus is much more widespread in lowland tropical forests than previously realised, particularly in the Americas, raising the possibility that the genus is more diverse in these regions than in the temperate zone.

In a paper published in the journal PhytoKeys on 4 April 2025, Álvaro Pérez of the Herbario QCA at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Jorge Andrés Pérez-Zabala of the Herbario Gabriel Gutiérrez Villegas at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Katya Romoleroux, also of the Herbario QCA at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, David Espinel-Ortiz, again of the Herbario QCA at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, and of the Bonn Institute of Organismic Biodiversity at the University of Bonn, and Chaquira Romoleroux and Natasha Albán-Vallejo, once again of the Herbario QCA at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, describe a new species of Prunus from southwestern Ecuador.

The new species is described from a small population of trees discovered in a cloud forest remnant in the Sambotambo Birón area of the Jocotoco Foundation-managed Reserve Buenaventura in El Oro Province, on the western flank of the Andes, between 1300 and 1400 m above sealevel. The new species is named Prunus luxurians, in reference to its 'profuse blooming and outstanding beauty', which makes it a conspicuous part of the lower and mid-strata of the forest.

Prunus luxurians: (A) Habit, (B branch with leaves and floriferous shoots, (C) flowers. Álvaro Pérez in Pérez et al. (2025).

Prunus luxurians forms trees up to 11 m high, with grooved dark brown bark with lighter lenticles (raised pores). Leaves are oblong-to-lance-shaped, waxy, and grow on alternating sides of leaf stems, they are 10–13.65 cm long and 3.5–4.65 cm wide. Flowers are white with light green centres, and born on floriferous shoots, which can have 14–27 individual flowers, clusetered together in groups of 3-4.

Only five living trees were found, in a fragment of montane evergreen forest, with high levels of bith diversity and endemism. The remaining forest fragments in this region are considered to be threatened by mining and farming activities, for which reason Pérez et al. recomend that Prunus luxurians be classified as Critically Endangered under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.

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Pristimantis prometeii: A new species of Rain Frog from the cloud forests of El Oro in southern Ecuador.

The tropical forests of Central and South America are home to almost half of the known species of Amphibians, and since about a quarter of these species have been described in the past decade, this is likely to be a severe under-estimation of the true diversity of Amphibians in these forests. The largest group of Amphibians in these American tropical forests is the Brachycephaloidea, a group of Frogs with an entirely terrestrial life-cycle, laying eggs in moist habitats, which develop directly into small Froglets and missing out on the Tadpole stage altogether. About half of the described Brachycephaloidians are included in the most specieous genus of terrestrial vertebrates known, Pristimantis, members of which are commonly known as Rain Frogs, which contains almost 500 species.

In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 21 July 2016, Paul Székely of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at Ovidius University Constanţa and the Departamento de Ciencias Naturales at the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Dan Cogălniceanu, also of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at Ovidius University Constanţa and of the Universidad Nacional de Loja, Diana Székely, again of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at Ovidius University Constanţa and the Departamento de Ciencias Naturales at the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, and of the Laboratory of Fish and Amphibian Ethology at the University of Liège, abd Nadia Páez and Santiago Ron of the Museo de Zoología at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, describe a new species of Robber Frog from the cloud forests of El Oro in southern Ecuador.

The new species is named Pristimantis prometeii, which refers to the Prometeo program of Secretaría de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación of the Republic of Ecuador, through which Dan Cogălniceanu and Paul Székely received funding for their research in southern Ecuador. The Frogs are brown or green in colour with variable blotchy markings. Adult females reach 29.9–37.6 mm in length, males 20.4–24.9 mm.

Pristimantis prometeii, female specimen. Székely et al. (2016).

The species was found at three locations in the Reserva Buenaventura, at altitudes of between 878 and 1082 m. The species was observed in September in 2014 and 2015, generally after rain at night, when they could be found on leaves close to the forest floor (10-100 cm above the ground).

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Eleutherodactylus beguei: A new species of Grass Frog from Guantánamo Province in southeast Cuba.                                          Small Grass Frogs are found across Cuba. Until 2012 these were all placed within a single species, Eleutherodactylus varleyi, but it was...

Robber Frogs from the mountains of western Mexico.                                                                         Robber Frogs of the genus Eleutherodactylus are found from Texas to Guatemala and Belize and across the islands of the Caribbean. The genus was formerly the most specious of any genus of Vertebrate Animals (i.e. it contained more species than any other...

A new cryptic species of Microhylid Frog from Espírito Santo State, Brazil.                      Cryptic species are species which resemble one-another physically, and which cannot generally be separated using traditional taxonomic methodology, but which are nevertheless genetically and reproductively isolated. Genetic studies of many groups...

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Synophis zaheri: A new species of Fishing Snake from Ecuador.

Fishing Snakes, Synophis, are small Colubrid Snakes from the cloud forests of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. They get their name from the habit of some species of consuming Fish, but they are secretive forest animals and the diet of most species is unknown, and likely to include more small terrestrial vertebrates, such as Lizards and Frogs, than it does Fish.

In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 1 December 2015, Alexander Pyron of the Department of Biological Sciences at George Washington University, Juan Guayasamin and Nicolás Peñafiel of the Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Cambio Climático at the Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica, and Lucas Bustamante and Alejandro Arteaga of the Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Cambio Climático at the Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica and Tropical Herping describe a new species of Fishing Snake from El Oro Province in southwest Ecaudor, as part of a wider review of the taxonomy of Colubrid Snakes of the Nothopsini group (which they suggest is not a true taxonomic grouping) in Ecuador.

The new species is named Synophis zaheri, in honour of Brazilian herpetologist Hussam El-Dine Zaher. The species is named from two male specimens found in a strip of cloud forest on the Pacific side of the Andes close to the Buenaventura Reserve. Both were slightly under 600 mm in length, with large heads and bulbous black eyes. The Snakes are greyish brown in colour with an iridescent sheen and bright yellowish white undersides. The diet of the snakes is unknown, but neither was found close to water.

Synophis zaheri in life. Pyron et al. (2015).

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A new species of Blunt-headed Vine Snake from the Chocó region of northwest Ecuador. Blunt-headed Vine Snakes (Imantodes) are medium sized (roughly meter length) Colubrid Snakes found from Mexico to Argentina. They are...

New species of Snail-eating Snake from western Panama.                                         Snail-eating Snakes of the genus Sibon are small, slender snakes native to Central America. They are nocturnal and often have banded...

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