Itapotihyla

Itapotihyla is a genus of frogs.  It is in the family Hylidae. It is monotypic. This means there is only one species in Itapotihyla: Itapotihyla langsdorffii.  It is called the ocellated treefrog in English. Most of these frogs live in the Atlantic Forest in Brazil, but a few more live in eastern Paraguay, other parts of Brazil, and northeastern Argentina.

Frog
Itapotihyla langsdorffii is large for a tree frog. The male frogs and female frogs look different. The adult female frog is larger.  Most are  from nose to rear end and the male frogs are  long.

Eggs
These frogs lay eggs in bodies of water in the rainforest.  Sometimes they lay eggs in bodies of water that dry up.  Sometimes they lay eggs in bodies of water that are there all year. This frog is an explosive breeder.  That means it has many, many young at the same time.  The female frogs lay 6000 eggs at a time, on average. The males sing very loud for the females. Sometimes the male frogs grab and push and fight each other. This is strange for frogs.  In most frogs, the males fight each other in species where males are bigger than females.

Food and threats
This frog eats animals with bones on the outside, for example grasshoppers and crickets.  It sometimes eats animals with spines, for example other frogs like Physalaemus crombiei and Scinax argyreornatus, or even birds.  Scientists know because they found bones and feathers in the frogs' stomachs. Snakes, for example Chironius bicarinatus, a colubrid, eat this frog.

Home
Itapotihyla langsdorffii lives in trees in rainforests. It only lives in places that human beings have not changed. The Itapotihyla langsdorffii that live in Paraguay are dying because of habitat loss but the ones in Brazil are not.

References

Category:Frogs of South America