These tiny frogs may seem as though they are wearing tiger striped socks or even cosplaying as a fierce tiger but that’s just their skin and they’re quite HOPPY about it. These amphibians are found in the Iwokrama Rainforest Reserve.
Description
Tiger striped leaf frogs are flat with green covering their tops and tiger striped under-belly and legs. Females can grow from 2.7 – 3.2 inches and Males: 1.7 – 2.1 inches.
Habitat
Photo of Tiger-striped tree frog on leaf. Photo Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/65695019@N07/39012841602/
The Tiger-striped Leaf Frog is a beautiful frog found in the lowland rain forests of the Amazon Basin, extending northeast into Guyana, French Guiana and Suriname. These frogs are arboreal, lives in trees, and nocturnal, active during the night. During the day, the frogs sleep on the leaves, hoping to stay hidden from predators and they do a good job at that, with their eyes closed and laying flat they are hard to distinguish from a normal leaf. Their huge, bulging eyes and stripes are what give them away.
Diet
They are carnivorous and eat a variety of invertebrates. They are cautious amphibians, stalking their prey with a keen stare, almost appearing to walk in slow-motion, carefully sneaking up on unsuspecting crickets and flies before making the attack. As mentioned, these frogs are nocturnal and only hunt during the night and rest during the day.
Reproduction
Photo showing the amplexus position of frogs. Photo Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Litoria_xanthomera_amplexus.jpg
During the breeding season between December and May, the males call from trees or shrubs. Once the female arrives, the male grasps her from behind in the amplexus position.
Then, she lays her eggs on leaves hanging over pools of water while the male fertilizes them. She lays around 70 unpigmented eggs. The reproductive aspects reported for the species of this family are marked by the uniqueness of egg deposition, placed on green leaves hanging under standing water, where the tadpoles will complete their development.
Photo showing the stages in the tadpole’s development. Photo Source: https://www.biotaxa.org/hn/article/view/34458/34207
Take a look at this video and become captivated by the graceful movements of the tiger-striped tree frog – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2MCG_iUADy
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