Blanchard's cricket frog

Blanchard's cricket frog, the Blanchard cricket frog, Texas coast cricket frog, or coastal cricket frog (Acris blanchardi) is a frog. It lives in Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

The adult frog is 1.6-3.8 cm long from nose to rear end.  The back legs are very long.  The skin on the frog's back has bumps on it but the skin on the belly does not.  The skin on the frog's back is usually gray or brown in color.  Some frogs have a reddish or brown stripe.  The frogs have a mark like a triangle between their eyes.

Some of the tadpoles have dark color on the ends of their tails.  Scientists think this confuses some animals that want to eat the tadpole.  But it only works on some of them.  Tadpoles that live in water with dragonfly larvae often have dark tails.  Tadpoles that live in streams with fish usually do not.

Threats

There are fewer of these frogs than there were.  This is because human beings change the places where the frogs live, because of chemicals meant to kill pests, chemicals meant to make crops grow, pollution, and climate change.

Taxonomy

Scientists used to think this frog was a subspecies of Acris crepitans, but in 2008, they looked at the frog's DNA.  They decided it was really its own species.  It is closely related to a Acris crepitans, though, especially Acris crepitans paludicola. 

Name

Scientists named this frog after Frank Nelson Blanchard.  Frank Nelson Blanchard was a scientist who worked on amphibians.

First paper

References

Category:Frogs of North America