Apparently, the call of the male coqui serves to discourage other nearby males from calling to attract females. Coquis, unlike many other frogs, do not pass through a tadpole stage. In at least 5 of the Puerto Rican species, the male broods and guards the eggs and females are aggressively forced away from the eggs soon after laying. At the end of the incubation period, a froglet, a tiny replica of the adult, emerges from each egg. All coquis have disks or pads on the tips of their toes, which help them cling to slippery surfaces.
Many species are arboreal, that is, they live in trees.
Arboreal species tend to have larger toe pads, relative to their weight, than terrestrial species. On the coastal lowlands almost all coqui species are arboreal, while in the highland forest most are terrestrial. Nearly all the lowlands species have ranges extending high up into the mountains, but mountain species rarely range down to the coast. Send mail to Webmaster with questions or comments about this web site.