Bronze/Green Frog - Rana clamitans

• Diagnostic Features:
  • Size: 2 to 3.5 inches (54 to 86 mm)
  • Color:
    • Green to Brown or Bronze
  • Other:
    • Smooth frog
    • Green coloration may be present on upper lip
    • Prominent tympanum
    • Dorsolateral folds do NOT extend to groin
    • White ventral surfaces with dark, irregular markings
    • Fully webbed feet, except fourth toe
  • Sexual Dimorphism:
    • Male throat has yellowish coloration
    • Male has a large tympanum
    • Male has stout forlegs and thumbs
• Natural History:
  • Habitat:
    • This frog shelters in logs and crevices, lives in swamps and near streams.
  • Behavior:
    • Solitary and nocturnal, it remains under shelter most of the time.
  • Breeding:
    • Breeding occurs from March to August, primarily May to June.
    • About 3000 eggs are laid in a raftlike surface film
    • summer breeder in usually permanent, often swampy sites.
• Voice: Sonogram : Call ( McDuffie, Henry, Rabun, & Walton Counties )
  • Single, twanging note repeated 3-4 times in succession
  • "c'tung"
  • Paired, internal vocal sacs
  • Both throat and sacs inflate during call
  • A high pitched "squeenk" is often given as a startled frog jumps to safety
• Tadpoles:
  • Most tadpoles transform in a few months, but some overwinter
  •  
  • 
  • tadpole larger, to 90 TL; dorsum dark or pale brown to gray with a few dots with fuzzy borders and subtle vermiculations; no spots in dorsal fin, but distal third of tail commonly with black, somewhat haphazard, more or less rectangular markings, fins commonly densely speckled; venter densely white in large specimens, usually with silver patches of iridophores in younger specimens, body notably depressed and long dorsal fin with low arch.
• Range: Green & Bronze Frog
  • In North America, exotic range: Vancouver Island and adjacent British Columbia and Washington and near Salt Lake City, Utah; native range: most of eastern North America east of central Oklahoma. Bronze frog is the more southern subspecies.
  • In Georgia, it is found throughout the state.

  

  • 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

September 9, 2006 - wwknapp@mindspring.com