When a female approaches a calling male, his vocalizations drop in volume as he approaches her, and he places his throat on the top of the female's head or dorsum. The male then leads the female to a potential oviposition site. Females often reject oviposition sites, at which point the stereotyped chinning and leading behavior resumes. Successful courtships result in a single egg being laid above the water line. This is the lowest known clutch size for an anuran without direct development, and is suggestive of a high degree of parental care.
Tadpoles cannibalize conspecific eggs.
Their most common source of food is fertilized eggs, which are the result of courtships. Facultative maternal care occurs when mothers return, alone, to the wells they mated in, and deposit a single, unfertilized egg for their tadpole to eat. Males and females have distinct interests during courtship and reproduction. Individuals of both sexes scout for oviposition sites when they are neither courting nor receptive to courtship. Males do not take females to wells which contain individuals or clutches of potential competitors, such as the two sympatric, well-breeding microhylid frog species.