Agalychnis spurrelli

The gliding leaf frog, gliding tree frog, Spurrell's tree frog, or pink-sided leaf frog (Agalychnis spurrelli) is a frog that lives in Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Costa Rica.  Scientists have seen it between 70 and 1199 meters above sea level.

Appearance

Frogs that live in different places are different sizes: Adult male frogs from Costa Rica are 4.8 to 5.6 cm long from nose to rear end and the adult female frog is 6.0 to 7.2 cm long.  The frogs that live in Panama are 6.7 to 7.6 cm long and 8.2 and 8.7 cm long.  It has webbing on its feet and disks on its toes for climbing.

This frog is different colors during the day and at night: much of its back is light green during the day and dark green at night.  This frog often has white spots with black outlines on its back.  Some frogs have green stripes and yellow throats.

This frog hides during the day and looks for food at night.  This frog climbs up vines by going hand over hand.  It can jump and glide from tree to tree by spreading its webbed front and back feet.

Eggs and tadpoles

The female frog leaves 14-67 eggs at a time.  She lays them on the upper side of a leaf hanging over a body of water that is not there all year.  Sometimes a male frog will scrape them off the leaf.  The eggs take six days to hatch.  The tadpoles fall into the water and stay near the surface with their mouths facing up.

Predators

Dragonfly nymphs, beetles, and aphids, cicadas, and leafhoppers that live in the water eat the frog's eggs.  Green kingfishers eat the tadpoles.  Snakes that can climb trees eat the adult frogs.

Threats

The number of frogs living in the wild is going down but it is not endangered now.  Scientists think its population is becoming smaller because of habitat loss and humans building farms and cutting down trees in the places this frog lives.

References

Category:Frogs of South America