Solving This London Mystery Led to the Discovery of a New Species Almost 6,000 Miles Away

Specimens that have languished in the collection of London’s Natural History Museum since the 19th century have recently revealed a major new species discovery. Researchers from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador described the new frog species, Pristimantis milpe, also known as the Milpe Robber Frog, in a recent paper published in ZooKeys. The find is notable because it is a relatively widespread species, rather than a small insect or one relegated to a tiny ecological niche. Additionally, it is a species that locals have commonly known for decades, although it had long been misidentified since it was collected in Ecuador years ago, and was only recently rediscovered by scientists from that country during a visit to the UK.

The study’s lead author, Santiago Ron, traveled to London to examine Ecuadorian specimens during a review of the institution’s historical amphibian collections. While comparing these historical specimens with present-day tree frog species from the Ecuadorian Chocó, Ron discovered that two distinct species had been mistakenly conflated. Because of this error, a species commonly known in the region for decades had never been officially cataloged, named, or recognized by science. "That such a common species has gone unnoticed under the wrong name for decades highlights the importance of correctly connecting scientific names with living populations in nature," commented co-author Jhael Ortega, a PhD student at Virginia Tech.

Pristimantis milpe is a common frog, inhabiting an estimated 67,000 square kilometers of the Chocó forests of western Ecuador and southern Colombia, from sea level to elevations of roughly 1,200 meters. In this region, the frog is well known to locals, with a distinctive nocturnal call that makes it stand out amid the sounds of the forest. Yet despite these factors, specimens held by the Natural History Museum were mistakenly cataloged as another species. From urban parks ot remote forests, the Milpe Robber Frog lives in a wide variety of habitats. The paper, “Long Overdue: a New, Widespread, Species of Pristimantis (Anura, Strabomantidae) from the Chocó Region and the Synonymy of Pristimantis Subsigillatus,” appeared in ZooKeys on July 24, 2026.

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