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Green Tree-frog


Photo: Courtesy of Damon Ramsey
 BSc.(Zool) Biologist Guide

Common Green Tree-frog:  Litoria caerulea

  • Alternate Names: White's Treefrog, Common Treefrog, Green Treefrog.

  • The best known frog in the Australian tropics
  • The Common Green Tree-frog has a humble appreciation of human habitation such as lavatories, bathrooms, downpipes and any other damp and shady places.

Size:

  • It is a large ten centimetres in length.

Call:

  • You may hear a deep "wark" or "crawl" call late at night, from downpipes, hollow tree trunks or limbs during times of rain or high humidity.

Additional Information: Tablelands Frog Club Inc.

Adult Description

  • Males to 90mm; Females to 113mm.

  • A large, robust frog with moderate legs.

  • Fingers with basal webbing and toes three-quarters webbed. Head is rounded with prominent glands.

  • The tympanum is smooth with a prominent supratympanic fold.

  • The dorsal surface is smooth, ventral surface strongly granular.

  • Nuptial pads are brown and slightly raised.

  • Colour ranges from uniform green to olive brown with or without white dots and blotches.

  • Throat is green on the jaw margins, the remainder of the ventral surface white.

  • A lateral row of white dots can be present.

  • Hidden surfaces of thigh tan or fleshy coloured.

  • Tympanum green or light brown. Iris golden.

  • Males call from vegetation and ground around pools from September to March. The mating call is a monotonous low-key 'crawk-crawk-crawk'.

  • Distress screams are sometimes heard when being attacked by a predator.

    Eggs and Tadpole

  • About 1000-3000, brown pigmented eggs in clear jelly are laid as a raft on top of water.

  • Fertilised eggs sink to the bottom becoming attached to pond vegetation.

  • Tadpole maximum size 44mm; lentic tadpole. Eyes are widely spaced, anus dextral, spiracle sinistral. Tooth row formula 2/3 with well developed, elevated border of large papillae on inferior edge of oral disc. Dorsal colour mottled brown with two caudal stripes on the tail, ventral varying from dark to light with aging. Tail pigmentation sparse. Juveniles metamorphose at 15-18mm.

    Habitat

  • Found in all habitats from desert to coastal swamps (including dry vine thickets) but not in dense tropical rainforest. In the dry season may be found under bark, in tree hollows, in and under logs and under rocks.

    Distribution

  • Throughout Queensland; New Guinea and all states except Victoria and Tasmania. 

References
Moore 1961; Harrison 1922; Copland 1957; Tyler, Crook and Davies 1983.
Scripts courtesy of the Tablelands Frog Club Inc.
 

Additional Information: Courtesy of Damon Ramsey

  • The green on the back is often decorated with small pale spots, while the underparts are white and granular.

  • The whole frog can dull down from bright green to drab olive brown. There are is often a large fold that may hang over the tympanum in larger individuals.

  • It is most common in the tropical top third of Australia.
    Script: Courtesy of  Damon Ramsey BSc.(Zool) Biologist Guide

Green Tree Frogs of the Lamington National Park.

Juvenile Green Tree Frog Photo


Chambers Wildlife Rainforest Lodges
Lake Eacham, Atherton Tablelands
Tropical North Queensland, Australia.
PH & Fax: 07 4095 3754 International: 61 7 4095 3754

http://www.rainforest-australia.com/accommodation


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