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Project Noah Nature School
Denropsophus rhodopeplus
This is a small frog that, although described as being red, yellow or white, I have only ever seen the yellow and white. Whatever color the body, it has a chestnut colored stripe along each side from the tip of the nose to the tail. Their smooth backs and legs have chestnut colored spots that vary in number between individuals, some having many, some few or none. The venter is a very light yellow to pale color. The iris is predominantly gray. The nose is short and rounded, the toes are short, webbed and with suction cup toes.
These frogs were seen on low vegetation overhanging a more-or-less permanent pool in the Amazon Rainforest of SE Ecuador (700 masl).
The difference in the three colors is attributed to exposure to light. At night, in the dark they have red backs. With exposure to light it changes to yellow and is white in daylight. I have never seen red ones here. Most are yellow, even in the daylight. I have observed yellow and white-backed frogs together at the same time, so my jury is still out on that tidbit of information from Wiki 😊
Spotted on Feb 21, 2008
Submitted on Mar 15, 2021
8 Comments
They're so tiny, but really pretty . . . and loud! Thanks Mark.
Fabulous spotting Tukup.
Thanks Ingrid. Beautiful place, beautiful critters.
Wonderful post!
Thanks Neil. After I'm sure of the identification, I actually spend at least an hour gathering information from "reliable" sources, then write the description while looking at and recalling my spotting. I enjoy it and I'm glad there are those who read the notes. Cheers.
That's an interesting little frog. Beautiful too. Thanks for sharing with us, Tukup. Excellent notes btw.
Thanks Sukanya. As I was involved in the verification and identification of herpetofauna in our province for 25 years, we actually caught, examined and photographed most of the species to make sure they were identified correctly. We found many species never reported from our province before. From finding them in their original habitat through examination to release I never noticed any changing colors. If they do it is almost instantaneous at the moment of discovery. It is interesting.
Very interesting ...that colour change thing...I wonder if it is related to predator vision (wavelength used for visualization)