The scientific name nola is Latin for "small bell", and refers to the high-pitched, bell-like call of the male in the breeding season.

This frog has a truncated snout and vomerine teeth, widely-separated eyes and small, indistinct tympani.

The limbs are slender, the digits having adhesive toepads; there is extensive webbing between fingers III and IV, and between the toes.

[5] In the breeding season, males call from near fast-flowing streams, either from rocks in the streambed, or from foliage up to a few meters above the water.

[4] In its limited range in Bolivia, this species is common, but it is threatened by pollution of the streams where it breeds which can suffer from agricultural run-off, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated it as "near-threatened".