Green forest climber frog

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Green forest climber frog
Green forest climber frog (Leptopelis vermiculatus), female

Green forest climber frog ( Leptopelis vermiculatus ), female

Systematics
Order : Frog (anura)
Subordination : Neobatrachia
Family : Long finger frogs (Arthroleptidae)
Subfamily : Leptopelinae
Genre : Forest climber frogs ( Leptopelis )
Type : Green forest climber frog
Scientific name
Leptopelis vermiculatus
( Boulenger , 1909)

The green forest climber frog ( Leptopelis vermiculatus ), also called jewel tree frog , Tanzanian tree frog or blue-footed forest climber frog , is a species of forest climber frog ( Leptopelis ) that only occurs in Tanzania .

description

The green forest climber frog has a head-trunk length of 4–5 centimeters (males) and 6–8.5 centimeters (females) and is one of the largest species of forest climber frogs. Like these in general, it is nocturnal and spends the day on shaded leaves or in leaf axils. Species identification based on the color is difficult: Adult females are difficult to distinguish from the species Leptopelis flavomaculatus, which also occurs in the habitat . The “youth dress” of the green forest climber frog is strong green on the back with fine, wave-like black patterns. The legs have a black, blue and white stripe pattern. The color then gradually changes to brown after about a year (sometimes with dark green areas). The adult animal has a wedge-shaped dark brown pattern on the back.

Occurrence and habitat

Path on the edge of the Amani Gorge (Eastern Usambara). The color photo was taken around the time the green forest climber frog was first found and described there.

The green forest climber frog is endemic to Tanzania near water points in some small mountain regions of the country that are geographically isolated from one another. It is on a total of 2000 square kilometers in mountain areas of eastern Tanzania such as the western and eastern Usambara Mountains , in the Nguu and Nguru Mountains , the Udzungwa Mountains , the Poroto Mountains and the area of Mount Rungwe near the Find the border with Zambia .

The Usambara Mountains are one of the smallest mountains in Tanzania. They are located in the Tanga region of the Muheza district about 250 kilometers southeast of Kilimanjaro . The tropical rainforest of the submontane zone, in which this species of climber can be found, extends over around 12,900 hectares. The Amani Nature Forest Reserve located there measures altitude zones from 150 meters above sea ​​level up to 1506 m above sea level.

The vertical distribution of the green forest climber frog includes terrain heights between 900 m NN and - in southern Tanzania - up to 1800 meters above sea level. The species fits into a unique fauna of these forest-covered mountains and is a rather common species there.

Reproduction

At spawning time , the male emits a single “click” as a mating call. ( Call of a juvenile Leptopelis vermiculatus .)

Heavy rains trigger the willingness to mate. The eggs are buried in the ground. After hatching, the long-tailed tadpoles actively move to neighboring water holes and develop aquatically .

Danger

Like other species found there, this species is threatened by deforestation and increasing UV radiation . Also it must because of the disjunctive and a total of only small-scale distribution as endangered ( endangered are called).

  • Cub

  • Adult female

  • Semi-adult male

  • Male animal in front view

Systematics and taxonomy

The species was first described as Hylambates vermiculatus in 1909 by George Albert Boulenger at the Natural History Museum in London, after a young male that was picked up by Paul Krefft in the Amani Gorge in the Usambara Mountains . In 1928 the species was placed in the genus Leptopelis by Thomas Barbour and Arthur Loveridge . The species name vermiculatus , which is also reflected in the English common name of the frog Vermiculate Tree Frog , comes from the wave-like fine lines reminiscent of winding worm tracks, which form an ornament on the back of the young forms of the species.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A. Schiøtz: The Treefrogs of Eastern Africa. Steenstrupia, Copenhagen 1975. p. 42.
  2. ↑ a b George Albert Boulenger : Descriptions of three new frogs discovered by Dr. P. Krefft in Usambara, German East Africa. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Series 8, 4, pp. 496-497, 1909.
  3. ↑ a b c d Darrel R. Frost: Leptopelis vermiculatus Boulenger, 1909. Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference, Version 6.1, American Museum of Natural History, New York 1998-2020, accessed May 20, 2020.
  4. ↑ Kurt Schwab with the assistance of Dr. Fr. Böhme [et. al.]: The German colonies. Under the artistic direction of Bernhard Esch, color photographic recordings by Dr. Robert Lohmeyer, Bruno Marquardt and Eduard Kiewning, Berlin 1910.
  5. ↑ a b Gvoždík, F. Tillack, M. Menegon & SP Loader: The status of Leptopelis barbouri Ahl, 1929 and eleven other nomina of the current tree-frog genus Leptopelis (Arthroleptidae) described from East Africa, with a redescription of Leptopelis grandiceps Ahl, 1929. Zootaxa, 3793, pp. 165-187, 2014.
  6. ↑ a b Leptopelis vermiculatus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2014 Posted by: (English) IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group, 2012. Retrieved on 20 May 2020.
  7. ↑ WA Rodgers & K. Homewood: Species richness and endemism in the Usambara mountain forest, Tanzania . Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 18, 3, pp. 197-242, June 2008.
  8. ↑ Thomas Barbour & Arthur Loveridge : A comparative study of the herpetological faunae of the Uluguru and Usambara Mountains, Tanganyika Territory with descriptions of new species. Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 50, pp. 87-265, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1928.
  9. ^ Keyword vermiculate . English-German translation for "vermiculate" in the Langenscheidt Dictionary Online, PONS GmbH, Stuttgart 2020.

literature

  • George Albert Boulenger : Descriptions of three new frogs discovered by Dr. P. Krefft in Usambara, German East Africa. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Series 8, 4, pp. 496-497, 1909. (first description).
  • A. Schiøtz: Treefrogs of Africa. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt am Main 1999, pp. 280-281.

Web links

Commons : Grüner Waldsteigerfrosch  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files