Get the latest news and updates from Dawn

San José: A tiny greenish, noctural frog that thrives in coffee plantations has been discovered in the Costa Rica’s central Pacific region, where it also faces risks from agrochemicals used in farming.

Measuring less than four centimeters and known as the “spring frog,” reporters observed the dark green-spotted amphibians in San Lorenzo de Tarrazu.

“It’s a new species of tree frog for science, and endemic to Costa Rica,” researcher Wagner Chaves-Acuna said, per the findings of colleagues from the University of Costa Rica and Argentina’s National Council for Scientific and Technical Research.

Also nicknamed the ‘coffee frog,’ the species has another distinctive trait: males have a translucent throat that inflates with their short, high-pitched call “At night, when they are most active, you can hear them singing and perched on coffee shrubs,” Chaves-Acuna said.