This species inhabits tropical lowland and montane forest, where there is a continuous forest cover. The presence of temporary or permanent ponds is important for its reproduction, which takes place by larval development. It can live in secondary forest, and even very heavily degraded areas as long as there is tree cover close to ponds (F. Bolaños pers. comm.).

This species has the widest distribution of the genus. It was previously known from the Atlantic slopes and lowlands from southern Veracruz and northern Oaxaca in Mexico, through Guatemala and Belize, south-east to northern Honduras, through Nicaragua and Costa Rica, continuing on to the Caribbean slope to Panama, and from an isolated record from Cartagena Botanic Garden in northern Colombia. In Costa Rica, it occurs in the whole country except in the province Heredia (Savage and Heyer 1967). It is now also present on Mancarroncito Island (Barquero 2010), and from Carozo and Estelí Departments (Sunyer et al. 2014) in Nicaragua. It has an altitudinal range from sea level up to 1,700 m asl.

The intraspecific morphological differences, suggest that this species could be three different species, one northern (from Mexico to north-west Honduras), one central (in Nicaragua and the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica), and one southern (Pacific coast of Costa Rica and Panamá; Duellman 2001), although currently these populations have not been recognized as separate.

This species is found in many protected areas throughout its range. It has been listed on CITES Appendix II since 2008. In 2013-2014, the Scientific Authority of CITES in Mexico (CONABIO), in close collaboration with experts, produced an identification guide and poster to spread the knowledge of the species regulation under CITES.