Acris crepitans
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| Northern Cricket Frog | ||||||||||||||
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| Acris crepitans Baird, 1854 |
The Northern Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans) is a species of small Hylid frog native to the United States and northeastern Mexico. Despite being members of the tree frog family, they are not arboreal. There are three recognized subspecies.
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[edit] Description
The Northern Cricket Frogs is North America's smallest vertebrate, ranging from 0.75 to 1.5 inches (19–38 mm) long. Their dorsal coloration varies widely, and includes greys, greens, browns, often in irregular blotching patterns. One NY biologist has identified 6 distinct colour morphs and 4 pattern morphs, and several intrergrades between these.(Westerveld,1977). Typically there is dark banding on the legs and a white bar from the eye to base of foreleg. The skin has a bumpy texture. It is very similar to the Southern Cricket Frog, Acris gryllus, found in the US Southeastern Coastal Plain, though there is some overlap along the fall line. The Southern Cricket Frog has longer legs, with less webbing on the hind feet, and a more pointed snout, although some NY biologists have observed Northern Cricket Frogs with snouts indistinguishable from those of the Southern species, and consider these to be two subspecies of one species (Westerveld, 1998). The line on the back of its thigh is typically more sharply defined than that of the Northern Cricket Frog (Conant et al. 1998, Martof et al. 1980). NY biologists have recorded Northern Cricket Frogs with extremely sharp posterior leg stripes.
[edit] Behavior & diet
Northern cricket frogs are diurnal and generally active much of the year, except in mid-winter in northern areas when the water is frozen. Their primary diet is small insects, including mosquitos. They in turn are predated upon by a number of species, including birds, fish, and other frogs. To escape predators, they are capable of leaping more than three feet in a single jump and are excellent swimmers.
[edit] Reproduction
Breeding generally occurs from May through July. The males call from emergent vegetation with a high pitched, short, pebble-like call which is repeated at an increasing rate. the sound suggests pebbles being clicked together,much like a cricket, hence the name. One egg is laid at a time and generally attached to a piece of vegetation. The 0.5 inch (14 mm) tadpoles hatch in only a few days and undergo metamorphosis in early fall. Maturity is usually reached in less than a year.
[edit] Habitat
Cricket frogs prefer the edges of slow moving, permanent bodies of water. Large groups of them can often be found together along the muddy banks of shallow streams. The Northern cricket frog has been observed to hibernate upland, often at considerable distance form water.
[edit] Subspecies
- Blanchard's Cricket Frog, Acris crepitans blanchardi (Harper, 1947)
- Eastern Cricket Frog, Acris crepitans crepitans (Baird, 1854)
- Coastal Cricket Frog, Acris crepitans paludicola (Burger, Smith and Smith, 1949)
[edit] Geographic distribution
- A. c. crepitans - from New York, south to Florida and west along the gulf coast states to Texas.
- A. c. paludicola - southwestern Louisiana to eastern Texas.
- A. c. blanchardii - Michigan and Ohio, south through to most of Texas and Mexico. Has been recorded in Minnesota and Colorado.
[edit] Conservation status
Frogs like the cricket frog are very important to humans as an indicator of water and general environmental quality in the areas they inhabit. Since the 1970s, populations of all amphibians have been in decline, which is largely believed to be attributable to the increase in use of fertilizers and pesticides. A. c. blanchardi is listed as a species of concern in the state of Michigan. Acris crepitans is listed as an endangered species in New York. One of the few populations of Northern Cricket Frogs in New York State survives at Orange County's Glenmere Lake. Individuals studying the Glenmere population hypothesize that chytrid fungus, responsible for some amphibian declines, to be the cause of the frog's decline at other locations, but the bi-monthly treatment of Glenmere's water, (unique to this singular Cricket Frog habitat) with the fungicide copper sulfate may in fact be helping this population avoid decline. This hypothesis has yet to be tested and proven, however.They are also an endangered species in Minneosta.
[edit] Effects of UV radiation
[edit] Effects of Chytrid Fungal Infection
Glenmere Lake supports a healthy population of Northern Cricket Frogs, despite being treated six times per year with the fungicide "Copper Sulfate". This factor leads some to theorize the Northern Cricket Frog's decline at other locations may be from Chytrid sp. fungal infection and that the copper sulfate application may help eliminate this fungus.
[edit] References
- Hammerson et al (2004). Acris crepitans. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes a range map and justification for why this species is of least concern
- Animal Diversity Web: Acris crepitans
- USGS: Northern Cricket Frog
- Frogs & Toads of Georgia: Acris crepitans crepitans
- Conant et al. (1998). A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-90452-8.
- Martof et al. (1980). Amphibians and Reptiles of the Carolinas and Virginia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-4252-4.
- NYS DEC Northern Cricket Frog Fact Sheet
- New York State's last population of acris crepitans' and the positive effect of continued fungicide treatment of the lake Chytrid theory
