Vampyrius

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**Rhacophorus vampyrus** (***Vampyrius vampyrus***) is a flying frog.  It lives in Vietnam.  It is the only frog species in its genus. People also call it the **vampire tree frog** or **vampire flying frog**. This is because the tadpoles have two black hooks in their mouths that look like vampire teeth. Its Vietnamese name is _Ếch cây ma cà rồng_.

This frog lives in evergreen forests  on mountains at 1470–2004 meters above sea level. It lives in trees. It can use the webbed skin on its feet to glide between trees. This is why it is called a flying frog.

Scientists call this frog both _Rhacophorus vampyrus_ and _Vampyrius vampyrus_ in the articles they write.

## Taxonomy

The first specimen was discovered in 2008 by Jodi Rowley of the Australian Museum at Sydney, Australia, and her student Le Thi Thuy Duong from Ho Chi Minh City University of Science. They found more in 2009 and 2010, and their team wrote the first paper about the species in the journal _Zootaxa_ in 2010. They called it _Rhacophorus vampyrus_. In 2012, scientists said this species should be called _Rhacophorus calcaneus_ because of the shapes of the adult frogs' bodies; however, in 2014 the species was reclassified as _R. vampyrus_ through phylogenic research. In 2021, a phylogenetic study found the species to fall far outside _Rhacophorus_, and instead be the sister genus to _Gracixalus_, so scientists gave it its own genus, _Vampyrius_.

## Appearance

_R. vampyrus_ can grow to 4.5 cm. There is webbed skin between the toes, so it can glide between trees. The skin of the frog's back is copper-brown in color with fainter, dark-brown mottlin<nowiki/>g.  The chest and belly are white, with a some black marks at the edge of the chest.  The upper surfaces of the arms and legs are copper brown with some dark brown marks.  The upper surfaces of the front and back feet are copper brown in color which fades to pinkish-cream or grey at the toes.  The lower surfaces of the front and back feet are a pale grey color.  The upper surface of webbing of the hands and feet is dark grey to black in color.  The lower surfaces of the species are grey.  _R. vampyrus_ has pale yellow/gold irises with a small rim of blue. There is also a pointed piece sticking out at tibiotarsal articulation. Tadpoles have black hooks on their mouths made of keratin, which is the same thing fingernails are made of. The tadpoles have long bodies and long tails.  They are dark brown in color, but sometimes the tail fins have no color. The tadpoles' eyes are black. The iris of the eye has gold specks.

## Home

So far, people have only found _R. vampyrus_ in southern Vietnam. The first specimens were found in Bidoup Núi Bà National Park, but scientists think they may also live in many parts of the Langbian Plateau (specifically in Chư Yang Sin National Park and Phước Bình National Park). Later, scientists found them in Ta Dung Nature reserve, Dak Glong District. The area that _R. vampyrus_ extends is approximately 2,082 km<sup>2</sup>.  The two places where _R. vampyrus_ lives are far apart. The space in between has low elevation, which would make it hard for the frog to live there or travel. Scientists think it used to live in more places, but human beings changed the places where it lives.

## Life cycle

_R. vampyrus_ lays its eggs in small, water-filled holes in trees during the rainy seasons, generally 0.3–1.2 m above the ground. It lays eggs mostly from July to May, producing clutches of 250 eggs or fewer. The eggs are laid in foam nests on the wall of the tree hole, where nests are usually about 30–120 cm above the ground. The larvae fall into a hollow basin filled with water. Tadpoles develop from the colorless eggs, but fertilized and unfertilized eggs are the same size. The eggs are white in color, with a thin transparent covering on the outside shell of each egg, with diameters between 0.70 and 1.29 mm. The tadpoles are long and dark-brown in color. Their tails are about three times as long as their bodies. Younger tadpoles are pale white or gray in color and they become darker over time.  The tadpoles have dark hooks on their lower jaws that look like fanged teeth.  This is the only frog or toad that has fangs like these.  There is also a hard arch on the upper jaw. The two hooks go forward. The species is named after these "fangs."

### Food

The hooks on the tadpoles' mouths show that they eat eggs and only eggs. The mother frog lays extra unfertilized eggs (to feed them). This is an example of advanced parental care. The tadpoles can open their mouths very wide, so they can eat large things, for examples eggs with a jelly coating still on. The tadpoles' intestine pouches can also stretch very wide to hold many eggs. It shrinks when the tadpole does not eat.

### Threats

In 2014, the IUCN Red List named _Rhacophorus vampyrus_ endangered. _R. vampyrus_ has two main populations and they live far away from each other because the land in between is not a good habitat for this frog. Scientists think the frogs in the two groups cannot mate with each other unless human beings take frogs from place to place, but no one has tried this yet.  _R. vampyrus_ needs to live in moist and dense mountain rainforests. Threats such as cutting down forests, road building, farming, and water farming can changes the area. There are fewer of these frogs than there were. including _R. vampyrus_.

### Efforts

The two places where scientists found this frog are already protected: Bidoup-Nui National Park and Ta Dung Nature Reserve. _R. vampyrus_ may live in other areas, for example Chu Yang Sin National Park and Phuoc Binh National Park. Scientists do not know as much as they want to know about this frog, which may make it harder to protect it.

## Other websites

- Profile _Rhacophorus vampyrus_ at Amphibia Web
- Vampire Flying (Tree) Frog - _Rhacophorus vampyrus_ - Profile at Carnovira
- Taxonomy - Rhacophorus vampyrus (vampire flying frog) at Uniprot
- discussing about discovery of _Rhacophorus vampyrus_