Charadrahyla juanitae

Juanita's earless tree frog (Charadrahyla juanitae) is a frog that lives in the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains in Mexico.  Scientists have seen it between 750 and 1080 meters above sea level and between 580 and 1530 meters above sea level.

Appearance

The adult male frog is 27.7 to 35.8 mm long from nose to rear end and the adult female frog is 37.6 to 39.8 mm long.

The adult frog is light gray or green or brown in color with dark gray or brown marks like a saddle or hourglass on its back.  It has a narrow white stripe.  It has a narrow dark brown stripe behind its eyes.  There are three or four thick stripes across its ront legs and three, four, or five on the back legs.  The belly and throat are white with a few darker marks.  The skin on its throat is smoothest.  There is only a small amount of webbing on its feet.

Home

This frog lives in pine-oak forests in two different parts of the Sierra Madre del Sur, both on the west side.  That is the side nearest the Pacific Ocean.  This frog lives in the same places as other frogs:  Charadrahyla altipotens, Charadrahyla pinorum, Ecnomiohyla miotympanum, Megastomatohyla pellita, Plectrohyla pentheter, Plectrohyla thorectes, and Ptychohyla leonhardschultzei.

Reproduction

The male frogs go to streams and sits on plants 40 to 120 cm tall.  Then they sing for the female frogs.  The female frogs lay eggs all the way underwater.  The eggs stick to rocks or to wood.  They lay fewer than 100 eggs at a time.  The eggs are about 2 mm long.

Threats

This frog is called "near threatened." It is not officially in danger of dying out but there are fewer of them than there were.  This is because human beings change the forests where it lives, cutting down trees for lumber and to build towns.  Diseases also kill this frog.  Scientists think the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis kills this frog.

Name

This frog is named for Juanita Snyder.  She is the wife of scientist David Snyder, who wrote the first formal paper about this frog.

References

Category:Frogs of North America