Southern Cricket Frog (Acris gryllus)
Description: At 0.75 to 1.5 inches in length, Acris gryllus is even smaller than A. crepitans. Other characters that differentiate the southern species are:
More pointed snout. A. crepitans's is more blunt.
Hind leg is more than half length of the body when folded; that of A. crepitans is less than one half body length.
When rear leg is extended forward, the heel of A. gryllus usually reaches beyond the snout; does not reach snout in A. crepitans.
A. gryllus can jump longer distances than A. crepitans.
A. gryllus has a sharply defined black stripe on the back of the thigh; A. crepitans has a ragged stripe.
Webbing on rear feet of A. gryllus is sparse; it is more extensive in A. crepitans.
There is evidence that the color of the vertebral stripe on southern cricket frogs can vary temporally and can change within one frog's lifetime.
Habitat: The southern cricket frog is characteristic of coastal plain bogs, bottomland swamps, ponds, and ditches. It prefers sunny areas, and is usually not found in woodlands.
Range: The southern cricket frog (Acris gryllus) is found in the southeastern United States, from Virginia to Florida and east to Louisiana. They are also found in the southwestern tip of Tennessee.
Diet: Adult southern cricket frogs are insectivorous and eat mostly mosquitoes. They attempt to catch prey by jumping forward and reaching with their tongues, sometimes even chasing after prey. In the tadpole stage, cricket frogs feed on plants.
Reproduction: Breeding occurs in the water. Females lay eggs one by one and attach them to the rocks and the vegetation of pond bottoms. Eggs are dark brown or black with a tan colored bottom. Tadpoles develop to be 1/2 inch long after about 7-13 weeks. At this point, they are deep-bodied with a lower labium, indentations of a mouth, eyes, and an anus. They are distinguished by a distinct black tipped tail.
Status: Secure or Apparently Secure In all of its range with the exception of Tennessee which has it classified as Imperiled.
»» Kingdom: Animalia - Animals
»» Phylum: Chordata - Chordates
»» Subphylum: Vertebrata - Vertebrates
»» Class: Amphibia - Amphibians
»» Order: Anura - Frogs & Toads
»» Family: Hylidae - Treefrogs
»» Genus: Acris
»» Species: Acris gryllus - Southern Cricket Frog
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Southern Cricket Frog", 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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