Barking Treefrog - Hyla gratiosa

• Diagnostic Features:
  • Size: 2 to 2.75 inches (51 to 69 mm)
  • Color:
    • At least some green present, but may be dark brown to light green, pale gray or yellow.
    • May be very pale when calling
    • Become darker when upset or sick
  • Other:
    • A larger, stouter treefrog
    • Profuse, round, dark markings usually persist thru various color changes
    • Large toe pads present 
  • Sexual Dimorphism:
    • Throats on males may be darkened during breeding season
• Natural History:
  • Habitat:
    • Climbs in the trees, but also frequents lower levels, even the ground.
    • May burrow, particularily in hot dry weather.
  • Behavior:
    • It feeds on various insects.
  • Breeding:
    • Breeding occurs from March to August.
    • Males call generally from the water.
    • Breeding may be precipitated by heavy rain.
    • Breeds in shallow pools or ponds. Individuals may call in shallow temporary pools after rain, but most groups are in permanent or semi-permanent water.
    • Females deposit eggs singly on the bottom
    • Total egg production/female about 2000
• Voice: Sonogram : Call (Long, Wheeler, Oglethorpe, & Columbia Counties) Cope's Gray Treefrogs & Fowler's Toads in background.
  • A barking call of nine or ten raucous syllables is uttered from high in the treetops or as moving down to breeding sites
  • The breeding call, given close to the water, is a single explosive Doonk or Toonk often repeated at intervals of one to two seconds
• Tadpoles:
  • Tadpole stage: 40 - 70 days
  • Transformed size: 14 - 20 mm
  • 
  • LTRF 2/3; narrow midventral gap in marginal papillae absent; eyes lateral; P-3 medium to short, P-2/P-3 > 1.2; east of Mississippi River
  • lower jaw sheath robust and very wide, half nearest serrated edge very black, remainder brown; P-2/P-3 ca. 1.5; length of one side of A-2/width of medial gap ca. 4.6; midventral marginal papillae biserial; fins clear until tadpole gets quite large, then has punctate melanophores proximally and stellate ones distally, the latter often dilate at night to produce jet-black tail, a white line caused by lack of pigment in subintegumentary layers extends from each naris toward the adjacent eye, tail muscle lightly pigmented until tadpoles get large; throat not pigmented
• Range:
  • In North America, North Carolina to south Florida and eastern Louisiana, chiefly in the coastal plain but also in many upland areas
  • Isolated colonies in Deleware and adjacent Maryland, southwest Kentucky and adjacent Tennesee and in southeast Virginia
  • In Georgia, it is found into the lower piedmont. It has been found along the western border of the state in the north. There it tends to be found on or near ridgetops.

    

  • In Light Blue: Williamson, Gerald K. & Moulis, Robert A., Distribution of Amphibians and Reptiles in Georgia, Special Publication No. 3, Savannah Science Museum, Inc. Savannah, Georgia, 1994
  • In Green: Sound Recordings
  • In Yellow: From Both '94 study and Sound Recordings
  • In Magenta: Photograph, not found by '94, may or may not be sound record
  • In Medium Blue: Photograph and in '94 study, may or may not be sound record 
  • In Orange: County Record by other Herp Atlas Volunteers
  • In Red: US Distribution from various sources

May 25, 2008 - wwknapp@mindspring.com