Lowland Chirping Frog (Eleutherodactylus cystignathoides)
Eleutherodactylus cystignathoides, also known as the Mexican chirping frog or lowland chirping frog, is a small eleutherodactylid frog. It is found from the southern United States in Texas. Its range in Texas has expanded because of transport in potted plants, and there is also a likely introduced population in Louisiana.
Description: dult males measure 0.6 to 0.9 inches and adult females 0.6 to 1.0 inches in snout-vent length. The snout is pointed and the body is flat and elongated. Tympanum is visible. The finger tips are slightly expanded. Dorsal skin is weakly pustular, that of venter is smooth to areolate. Dorsal coloration is variable (brown, gray, or yellow-green) and includes dark spots. Ventral skin is translucent. The hind limbs have dark crossbars.
Habitat: Eleutherodactylus cystignathoides occurs at low elevation coastal plains and at low to moderate elevations in foothills. Individuals can be found in moist shaded vegetation, palm groves, thickets, ditches, resacas, lawns, and gardens. Many records are from urban settings. They can hide under cover objects during the day. They have been observed to utilize arboreal perches 7.9 to 59.1 inches above the ground.
Range: The range extends from extreme southern Texas in the United States to adjacent northeastern Mexico. The range in southern Texas has increased due to transport in potted plants. Introduced populations exist in the San Antonio and Houston areas, and at Port Aransas, Mustang Island; by 2004, this species had been found in at least 10 counties outside the native range. The species recently was found in Shreveport, Louisiana; frogs were documented during 4 years; calling males and a female with large yolked eggs indicated that this species was reproducing and surviving; presumably the Shreveport records represent introductions.
Found in these States:
TX
Diet: Consists of spiders, flies, centipedes, termites - anything smaller than about two millimeters in length.
Reproduction: Reproduction is terrestrial and direct, without a free-living larval stage. Under laboratory conditions, eggs are laid just under the soil surface. Clutch size is 5 to 13 eggs measuring 0.12 to 0.14 inches in diameter. The eggs hatch as froglets that measure approximately 0.20 to 0.33 inches.
Status: This species is quite common throughout its range and no major threats to it are known; rather, they appear to thrive in the presence of humans.
»» Kingdom: Animalia - Animals
»» Phylum: Chordata - Chordates
»» Subphylum: Vertebrata - Vertebrates
»» Class: Amphibia - Amphibians
»» Order: Anura - Frogs & Toads
»» Family: Eleutherodactylidae - Rain Frogs
»» Genus: Eleutherodactylus
»» Species: Eleutherodactylus cystignathoides - Lowland Chirping Frog
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Eleutherodactylus cystignathoides", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0. Content may have been omitted from the original, but no content has been changed or extended.
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