Charadrahyla taeniopus

The porthole tree frog (Charadrahyla taeniopus) is a frog that lives in Mexico.  Scientists have seen it in cloud forests 1100 to 2200 meters above sea level.

Appearance

The adult male frog is 68.8 to 75.1 mm from nose to rear end and the adult female frog is 69.4 to 75.3 mm long.  They have disks on their toes for climbing and all four feet are webbed. This frog has a brown belly with large brown marks and small yellow marks.  This frog has a white or silver throat.  The adult female frogs are red-brown with brown marks on their backs.  The adult male frogs are black-brown with yellow marks on their backs.  This frog looks very much like Ecnomiohyla miotympanum but it is larger and Ecnomiohyla miotympanum is smaller.

Food

Adult frogs eat insects.  The tadpoles eat algae and dead things.

Threats

This frog is vulnerable to dying out because human beings change the places where it likes to live by building farms.  This frog needs the shade from forests or it will dry out and die.  The chemicals that human beings use to kill pests, for example DDT, can also kill this frog too.  The DDT can go into the frog's body through its skin.  Or the frog can eat other animals with DDT in their bodies.

Human beings also catch this frogs to eat or sell.

Humans

This frog lives in a town called Atzalan in Veracruz and it is on the town's official shield symbol.  It is on many of Atzalan's monuments.  People have eaten this frog for food for hundreds of years, since the Aztec culture or earlier.  People cook them in soup or make cakes called Calate cakes.

Human beings who live in Atzalan believe the frogs come on the same day of the year, September 29, that San Andrés Apóstol and the Archangel Michael were venerated.

People also catch these frogs to use in medicines or sell as pets.

References

Category:Frogs of North America