It is endemic to Peru and only known from its type locality in the northern section of the Río Huallaga basin, Department of San Martín, on the eastern slope of the Cordillera Central (Peruvian Andes).

The dorsal surfaces of limbs are green with yellow tubercles and pale orange and tan spots.

[2] The type locality is a ridge with evergreen montane forest at 2,860 m (9,380 ft) above sea level.

[1] Atelopus pyrodactylus is only known from two specimens, the holotype collected in 2003 and a dead female found in 2006 from the same locality.

The area of the type locality is under high human pressure and suffers from habitat loss (clearing of land for agriculture).