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Peron's Tree Frog

Litoria peronii

Description:

Peron's Tree Frog is one of the most varied coloured frogs in Australia, with the ability to change colour in less than one hour. It varies in shades of grey and brown, where its lightest is almost white. The frog has mottled yellow and black thighs, armpits and groin. Occasionally emerald spots are found on the back, which increase in number with age. A characteristic uncommon in the Litoria genus, is pupils which appear cross shaped. This characteristic is only shared with Tyler's Tree Frog within the Litoria genus. The male Peron tree frog is approximately 44-53 mm while Females are 46-65 mm.

Habitat:

The frog is found in forests, woodlands, shrub-lands and open areas, often far away from a water source. They inhabit a variety of niches, predominantly in arboreal situations, such as tree hollows, cracks and beneath the flaking bark. The frog is commonly found near civilisation (such as suburban Sydney), using ponds or dams as their breeding water source. It can often be seen on windows or near lights at night, as it hunts the insects attracted to these light sources. They can often be found at dusk on houseboat windows and beneath street lamps along the Murray River in South Australia.

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4 Comments

LachlanHart
LachlanHart 12 years ago

I've reconsidered after seeing so many variants of this frog from amongst everyones sightings and reading further on L. peronii. It seems that this frog is so adept at changing colour that it's lack of coloration when I encountered him does not identify him as tyleri rather than peronii. I'm now really keen to spot a L. tyleri to note the difference!

MartinL
MartinL 12 years ago

Well done Lachlan.

LachlanHart
LachlanHart 12 years ago

Thanks martinl, after your comment I realised that the cross pupil was the only useful distinguishing feature. I investigated this as I had already discounted peronii due to my frogs lack of any coloration both on the back and in the pits and groin. I found Litoria tyleri and I think we have a winner. The only three frogs I could find were peronii, tyleri and rothii. Tyler's Tree Frog is the only one that fits in both appearance and distribution. Cheers, Lachlan.

MartinL
MartinL 12 years ago

I believe that perons tree frog is the only one with the cross within the eyes http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/806.... My pic has color saturation ruined the photo by exaggerating the green spots but the color is variable.

LachlanHart
Spotted by
LachlanHart

2777, New South Wales, Australia

Spotted on Feb 26, 2012
Submitted on Feb 25, 2012

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