[1] It was first described by the British biologist and herpetologist Arthur Loveridge in 1945 and is named in honour of the American ornithologist and explorer Rollo Beck who led the Whitney South Seas Expedition in the 1920s, collecting bird and other specimens from thousands of islands in the South Pacific.

In 2007, a previously unknown population was discovered at an altitude of 3,200 metres (10,500 ft) in the Kaijende Highlands in Enga Province.

[1][4] The typical habitat of this frog is mountain grassland including boggy areas with pools.

It breeds in rapid mountain streams, the large eggs being stuck onto the underside of stones.

It might be vulnerable to the amphibian disease chytridiomycosis which affects some montane, torrent-dwelling frog species in Australia.