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Unnamed spotting

Notes:

Wet, by the pool, light green

1 Species ID Suggestions

sunswimer02
sunswimer02 11 years ago
Cope's Gray Treefrog
Hyla chrysoscelis AmphibiaWeb - Hyla chrysoscelis


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6 Comments

Gordon Dietzman
Gordon Dietzman 11 years ago

Agreed, they are very neat little amphibian.

sunswimer02
sunswimer02 11 years ago

Yea, its always a conundrum about which gray treefrog it is lol. Still though, a cool frog to catch!

AshleyT
AshleyT 11 years ago

I also agree it is a gray tree frog. As far as determining which species it is, I think it would be okay to put either as the common and scientific names, then put in the notes that it could also be the other, but if you don't know the calls, then the only other way is to count chromosomes. Nice find though :)

Gordon Dietzman
Gordon Dietzman 11 years ago

Ha, sunswimer02, you may very well be correct! The white spot is indicative and I missed it. (Also explains why I don't see even a pale cross on the back.) The only caveat is that I suspect that there are also gray treefrogs (Hyla versicolor) in addition to the Cope's (Hyla chrysoscelis) in the area of this sighting. Never quite sure how to handle this issue as the only good way to telling the two species apart in the field is by their call. I've got a couple of spottings that I've labeled "Gray Treefrog" as I live within the range of both species. But I never hear the Cope's, so I've taken the liberty of calling my spottings Gray Treefrogs, or in moments of ambiguity, labeled one spotting "Gray Treefrog (possibly Cope's Treefrog) and another spotting as "North American Treefrog." But I think you're right that this is a gray treefrog, but with the caveat that I don't know which one. I'll delete my suggested ID as it is clearly wrong. Good catch! Thanks!

sunswimer02
sunswimer02 11 years ago

It kind of looks like it has a white spot under the eye. Maybe it's a gray treefrog?

Gordon Dietzman
Gordon Dietzman 11 years ago

The link above takes you to a very good resource on frogs and toads of Missouri. Many spring peepers have a faint "X" on their back, but this one seems to lack the X. Welcome, by the way, to Project Noah! Thanks for participating.

Missouri, USA

Spotted on Jul 5, 2012
Submitted on Dec 24, 2012

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