Fred Kraus, from Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii, found the two new species living in leaf litter in remote mountain forests in southeastern Papua New Guinea.

Only females were found for the first species, Paedophryne dekot, which measures between 8.5-9mm. It was named dekot because that is the word for ‘very small’ in the local Daga language.

The second species, Paedophryne verrucosa, is even smaller. Although the females were 8.8-9.3mm, the males were just 8.1-8.9mm long. Its name comes from the Latin word meaning ‘full of warts’, as both sexes of the frog have lots of raised bumps on their backs.

Like other frogs on the island, their tiny size means that the new species only have three fingers on their hands, and four toes. Their smaller fingers and toes mean that they are not very good at climbing and live most of their lives in the loose leaves and other material on the forest floor.