Polypedates maculatus
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| Indian Tree Frog | ||||||||||||||||
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| Polypedates maculatus (Gray, 1833) |
The Common Indian Tree Frog or Chunam Tree Frog (Polypedates maculatus) is a common species of tree frog found in South Asia.
They are mostly whitish or greyish. They have day roosts that they may user regularly. Their call is a sudden short and rapid series of rattling rat-tats.[1]
[edit] Description
Vomerine teeth in two more or less oblique series between the choanae or commencing close to the inner front edge o£ the latter. Skin of head free; a more or less developed bony arch, sometimes slender and partly ligamentous, sometimes very thick and swollen, extending on each side from the posterior border of the frontoparietal bones to the squamosals; snout obtusely acuminate, about as long as the diameter of the orbit; canthus rostralis distinct; loreal region concave; nostril much nearer to the end of the snout than to the eye; interorbital space broader than the upper eyelid; tympanum about three fourths the diameter of the eye. Fingers with a slight rudiment of web; toes two-thirds webbed; disks moderate, that of the third finger measuring two fifths to one half the diameter of the eye; subarticular tubercles moderate. The tibio-tarsal articulation reaches the eye, or between the eye and the tip of the snout. Skin smooth above, granulate on the belly and under the thighs; a fold from the eye to the shoulder. Brownish, yellowish, greyish, or whitish above, with darker spots or markings;rarely with an hourglass-shaped figure on the back of the head and the front of the back; loreal and temporal regions dark; a light line on the upper lip; hinder side of thighs with round yellow spots, which are usually separated by a dark brown or purplish network. Male have internal vocal sacs. [2]
Can be confused with Polypedates leucomystax.
They wipe themselves with skin secretions consisting of mucous and lipds that help in reducing moisture loss. When temperatures are higher they secrete from the skin ("sweat"), pant and adopt lighter skin colours.[3][4]
[edit] References
- ^ Kanamadi, R. D., Η. Schneider, C. R. Hiremath & C. S. Jirankali (1993) Vocalization of the tree frog Polypedates maculatus (Rhacophoridae) J. Biosci. 18(2):239-245 [1]
- ^ Boulenger, G. A. 1890. Fauna of British India. Reptilia and Batrachia.
- ^ Harvey B. Lillywhite; Ajay K. Mittal; Tarun K. Garg; Indraneil Das (1998) Basking Behavior, Sweating and Thermal Ecology of the Indian Tree Frog, Polypedates maculatus. Journal of Herpetology 32(2):169-175.
- ^ H. B. Lillywhite; A. K. Mittal; T. K. Garg; N. Agrawal (1997) Wiping Behavior and Its Ecophysiological Significance in the Indian Tree Frog Polypedates maculatus. Copeia 1:88-100.
