page_title: American green tree frog
section_title: Breeding
hierarchical_section_title: American green tree frog / Behavior / Breeding
caption_attribution_description: English: American green tree frog - Hyla cinerea. Taken by Gregory Badon on December 23, 2007. The frog was found snuggling under an old tractor-seat cushion. The temperature was about 45&#160;°F (7&#160;°C) and sky was overcast. Job (talk) 04:44, 25 December 2007 (UTC)
context_page_description: The American green tree frog is a common species of New World tree frog belonging to the family Hylidae. A common backyard species, it is popular as a pet, and is the state amphibian of Georgia and Louisiana.
context_section_description: Most American green tree frog females breed once per year, but some have multiple clutches in a single mating season. In a Florida population, "advertisement calls of males were documented between March and September and pairs in amplexus were observed between April and August." In the Florida population, the average number of offspring in a single clutch was observed to be about 400 eggs.  Eggs take between four and 14 days to hatch, with an average of five days.  According to the Animal Diversity Web at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, "Female size was positively correlated with clutch size, but after the initial clutch, the number of eggs nearly always decreased."
  Breeding is known to be strongly influenced by day length, temperature, and precipitation."  While "the relative influence of these factors is not well understood," it is known as the frogs generally breed following rainfall, and males call more frequently as temperature and day length increase.  Some evidence demonstrates the length of the breeding season length is correlated with latitude, with season length decreasing as latitude increases due to temperature limitations.
  Males use a distinct advertisement call, "noticeably different than [sic] release or warning calls," to attract mates.  Once a mate has been attracted, the pair begins amplexus, in which "the male tightly grasps onto the female to bring their cloacal openings close together for fertilization."  Males are polygynous, generally seeking to mate with as many females as they can attract.
  In southern Florida, the Cuban tree frog (Osteopilus septentrionalis) is an invasive species that has a similar call to the green tree frog in regards to timing and pitch. A study found that their calls compete acoustically with each other due to their similarity which limits communication space. In order to compete with the Cuban tree frog, green tree frogs modified their call to be shorter, louder, and more frequent so that potential mates have better chances of detecting the call.
  American green tree frogs show no parental investment except for mating and egg-laying.
caption: American green tree frogs vary in color.
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