Environments are vertically stratified in the rainforests. There is the deep alluvial soil, the ground litter of leaves and decaying logs, the low bushes and small trees, and finally the tall trees of the forest. Each of these provides certain types of shelter for amphibians. The moist soil and litter on the forest floor is an important microhabitat for fossorial and strictly terrestrial species. The dense foliage of the trees, tree holes, and bromeliads growing on the trees provide shelter for arboreal species. Arboreal and terrestrial bromeliads and the terrestrial elephant-ear plants (_Xanthosoma_) contain water in the axils of their leaves throughout the year and thus provide an important habitat for amphibians. The low, spiny, deciduous trees of the scrub forest and the grasses and scattered trees in the savannas provide little shelter. In the savannas there are depressions, some of which contain water throughout the year; these are often surrounded by trees providing refugia for amphibians during the dry season. In the scrub forest many species congregate along streams and in moist stream beds during the dry season. Now that the important ecological factors of the major environments have been outlined, we may examine the local distribution of amphibians in each of these. Beginning with the rainforest, we find only one fossorial species, _Gymnopis mexicanus_. A large number of species are found on the forest floor; characteristic inhabitants of the leaf litter are: _Bufo valliceps_, _Eleutherodactylus rhodopis_, _Microbatrachylus pygmaeus_, and _Syrrhophus leprus_. Other terrestrial amphibians usually are not scattered throughout the rainforest, as are those named immediately above, but instead inhabit areas of forest adjacent to ponds or streams; these species include: _Bufo marinus_, _Eleutherodactylus natator_, _Eleutherodactylus rugulosus_, _Leptodactylus labialis_, _Leptodactylus melanonotus_, _Rana palmipes_ and _Rana pipiens_. The most striking ecological assemblage of amphibians in the rainforest is the arboreal group of species, including: _Bolitoglossa occidentalis_ _Bolitoglossa platydactyla_ _Eleutherodactylus alfredi_ _Hyla baudini_ _Hyla ebraccata_ _Hyla loquax_ _Hyla microcephala martini_ _Hyla picta_ _Phrynohyas modesta_ _Phrynohyas spilomma_ _Phyllomedusa callidryas taylori_