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Vietnamese Mossy Frog

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Sapo-comum by Diogo O. (TheRocky41) on Flickr.

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Sapo-comum by Diogo O. (TheRocky41) on Flickr.

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Copper Rainfrog, Pristimantis chalceus by Andreas Kay on Flickr.

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Huge Congregation of River Frogs Documented in Georgia

by Dirk Stevenson

When the accomplished Albert Hazen Wright (1879-1970), Cornell University Professor and Herpetologist, first encountered the strange tadpoles of the River Frog (Lithobates heckscheri), he knew instantly he was looking at a new species. Wright, who described the new frog in 1924, wrote of the species’ habitat”…swampy edges of rivers and streams, a truly fluviatile species” and mentioned that the polliwogs “travel in big schools as no other big tadpoles do.”

John Jensen, herpetologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, and Jim Wright (no relation to Albert) just published a fascinating paper in the current issue of Herpetological Review about the River Frog. Last May, along the shores of a tributary to Muckalee Creek, Jim snapped incredible photos of a mass metamorphosis event of River Frogs—an estimated 4,000 tadpoles transformed and became froglets, congregating on nearby sand-and-mud-bars.

An adult female River Frog can lay 5,000 to 14,000 eggs in a floating surface film. The tadpoles require one to two years to develop and sometimes reach phenomenal sizes (ca. 5 inches) prior to metamorphosis…

(read more: Orianne Society)

Photos by Jim Wright and Dirk Stevenson

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Italy, Salamander on top by VittorioRicci on Flickr.

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Yellow Spotted Salamander by orionemployee

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Pseudoeurycea bellii

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Oedipina petiola | ©Jason M. Butler

A Narrow-footed Worm salamander, Oedipina petiola (Plethodontidae), photographed in Honduras.

These salamanders are unique for their long and thin body, its extremely short limbs and small fingers, and also because, like other species of the genus, lack lungs and breathe through the skin and the tissues lining their mouth.

Oedipina petiola is known only from Parque Nacional Pico Bonito, Cordillera Nombre de Dios, Honduras (type locality). 

The species was described does ​​just a few years ago, in 2011. It was  previously assigned to O. gephyra, but a combination of molecular analyses and its differences in foot morphology diagnose it as a new species. You can read the description here.

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The larch mountain salamander is a lungless amphibian that lives in the Pacific Northwest. It breathes through its skin which has to stay constantly wet, even though its a land-dwelling salamander. This is its defensive position, thought to resemble a poisonous millipede.

Image credit: John Clare

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(via 500px / Poison dart frog Ameerga trivittata/Epipedobates trivittatus by F. H.)

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Ameerega silverstonei in habitat, Silverstone’s Poison Frog, IUCN Redlist Data Deficient, Departmento Huanuco, Peru by Brad Wilson, DVM on Flickr.

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Rainforest Rocket frog (male with tadpoles)

Silverstoneia flotator (Dendrobatidae) is a species of forest-dwelling frog native to Costa Rica and Panama, in which mothers transfer their eggs to the male before leaving, and the father cares for the developing offspring alone. 

So what in the photo appears to be a frog with exotic hairstyle is actually a male rocket frog carrying his offspring.

References: [1] - [2]

Photo credit: ©Brian Gratwicke | Locality: Panama

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(via 500px / Red-eye Tree-Frog by Juan Carlos Vindas)

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Golden Frog by True_Bavarian on Flickr.

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(via 500px / Varadero Imitator by JP Lawrence)

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(via 500px / Eyes on You by Roie Galitz)