Family: Hylidae - Tree Frogs
Order: Anura - Frogs
Class: Amphibia
Phylum: Chordata - Vertebrates
Kingdom: Animalia
Red List status: Least Concern
Eastern Australia from the coast inland to central Queensland and south to northeastern New South Wales. It has been reported from the Cape York Peninsula and the Gulf of Carpentaria, but the reliability of these records has been disputed.
Adult:
A rotund, blunt-snouted burrowing frog with short, robust limbs. The
dorsum is dark brown
mottled with shades of lighter brown or yellow, and a pale, narrow
mid-dorsal stripe is
generally present. A broad, dark
stripe runs from the tip of the snout to the base of the forearm,
passing through the eye and
tympanum. The belly
is white, and the backs of the thighs are brown flecked with paler spots.
The tympanum is large and
distinct. An inner
metatarsal
tubercle is present and shaped like a spade; there is no outer
metatarsal tubercle. Toes are less than one-quarter webbed. The pupil is
horizontal, and
vomerine teeth are present between the
choanae.
Maxillary teeth
are present. The skin is finely granular in texture, with some warts on the
upper surface. Sex can be determined by the texture of the throat, which is
granular in males but smooth in females.
Eggs: Eggs are brown, and are laid on the water surface within a clump of clear jelly on the water surface.
Call: A long, sheep-like bleat uttered from the ground around pools.
Superb collared frog. Note the prominent dark stripes.
Similar species: Species of the subgenus Cyclorana can be distinguished from other Australian hylid frogs by the absence of toe discs and their fully terrestrial or subterranean lifestyle. Species of Limnodynastes and Notaden can most easily be distinguished in the field by the absence of a visible tympanum in these genera; details of the dentition also differ. Within Cyclorana, Litoria brevipes is distinguished by the combination of small size, the absence of a dorsolateral fold, the lack of extensive webbing between the toes and details of patterning. The similarly-patterned Litoria verrucosa possesses a metatarsal tubercle that is longer than the distance between it and the tip of the innermost toe; in L. brevipes the spade is shorter than this distance.
Dry savannah, woodland and forest; roadside verges often provide important breeding habitat for this species in areas impacted by agricultural development..
This is a predominantly fossorial species, and is adapted to conserve water while spending most of its adult life dormant in burrows. Animals emerge only following heavy rain, where they congregate around temporary water bodies to breed.
The evolutionary relationships of species within Litoria is currently uncertain. Provisionally, species previously assigned to the Australian genera Cyclorana and Nyctimystes have been reassigned to the larger genus (Frost et al, 2006). It is likely, however, that Cyclorana represents a monophyletic group within Litoria, and the genus name is retained here as a subgenus pending its possible resurrection, as suggested by Frost et al (2006) and for the convenience of individuals using field guides or papers that predate this change.
Wildlife of Tropical Queensland, The Queensland Museum 2000
Cogger, H. G. (2000) Reptiles & Amphibians of Australia, 6th Edition. Ralph Curtis Publishing: 808 pp
Frost, D.R., Grant, T., Faivovich, J., Bain, R.H., Haas, A., Haddad, C.F.B., de Sá, R.O., Channing, A., Wilkinson, M., Donnellan, S.C., Raxworthy, C.J., Campbell, J.A., Blotto, B.L., Moler, P., Drewes, R.C., Nussbaum, R.A., Lynch, J.D., Green, D.M. and Wheeler, W.C. (2006) The amphibian tree of life. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 297: 1-291
Hero, J-M., Clarke, J, Meyer, E. and Retallick, R.. (2008). Litoria brevipes. In: IUCN 2008. 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
Robinson, M. (1993) A Field Guide to Frogs of Australia, Reed New Holland
Litoria brevipes. Townsville, Queensland, Australia.
