Catholic frog
| Catholic frog | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Catholic frog ( Notaden bennettii ), |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Notaden bennettii | ||||||||||||
| Günther , 1873 |
The Catholic frog ( Notaden bennettii ) is a frog that is native to eastern Australia and belongs to the four species notaden . This is counted to the family of the Australian southern frogs (Myobatrachidae). In some reviews, however, it is also classified in a family Limnodynastidae, which other authors only understand as a subfamily Limnodynastinae within the Myobatrachidae. The common name is derived from a pattern on the back that is reminiscent of a black cross . It is also referred to in English ("Catholic Frog", "Crucifix Toad", "Holy Cross Toad"). The animal spends most of the year buried in the ground.
features
.jpg)
It is a clumsy frog with very short legs and a short-nosed head that is barely set off. By additionally inflating the body when threatened, the animal sometimes looks spherical. The head-torso length is a maximum of 55 millimeters. The basic color of the glandular, flat blackish top is yellow, olive or green, whereupon black, sometimes red, white and yellow spots often result in a cross-like pattern. Yellow, white and black spots can also be found on the flanks. The underside is white and smooth-skinned. There are smaller webbed feet between the toes of the hind feet. The heel humps are shaped into hard digging shovels. This allows the frog to dig its way backwards like a corkscrew into the ground.
distribution
The species is distributed in eastern and south-eastern Australia, namely in the states of New South Wales and in the south of Queensland . The area is naturally located in the Murray-Darling Basin, in the so-called Channel Country and in parts of the East Central Queensland region. Above all, the lowlands and plains west of the Great Dividing Range are populated, a total of around 615,000 square kilometers.
Habitat and way of life
The Catholic frog lives in river valleys and open to forested, sometimes savanna-like slopes, preferably with black earth soils . Most of the year it stays buried deep in the ground, where it survives dry phases with severely restricted metabolism ( summer dormancy ).
The animals only become active after heavy rainfall, come to the surface and use these periods for reproduction and for food acquisition. In contrast to many other amphibians, they are then also diurnal. The males look for shallow pools and utter owl-like mating calls ("whuh-uh-uh") on the water surface. Once a pair has been found, the eggs are released into the water. A female can produce 200 to 1000 eggs per year. The later hatching tadpoles are small and gray-brown to dark brown in color. In adaptation to the short-lived waters, they develop relatively quickly until they metamorphose into small frogs.
The main diet of the species consists of termites and ants .
If a Catholic frog is seized by an enemy and pressure is exerted on its back skin, a yellowish, quickly becoming very sticky secretion emerges in large quantities. Nevertheless, the Aborigines used the animal as a tasty supplementary food by peeling off its skin and especially consuming the thighs.
swell
Individual evidence
- ↑ American Museum of Natural History: Amphibian Species of the World
- ^ Doris M. Cochran: Amphibians. Knaur's animal kingdom in colors . Droemer Knaur, Munich / Zurich 1970, ISBN 3-426-04512-5
Web links
- Australian Frog Database: Notaden bennettii (main source of article as of October 15, 2010)
- IUCN Redlist: Notaden bennettii
- Species portrait at Amphibiaweb
