Mountain Chorus Frog - Pseudacris brachyphona

• Diagnostic Features:
  • Size: 1 to 1.5 inches (25 to 38 mm)
  • Color:
    •  Varies from olive, to gray, or brown
  • Other:
    • Dorsal stripes curved and bending toward center, may touch to form crude X or break into spots
    • Triangle between eyes
    • White line on upper lip
    • Yellow pigment on concealed and lower surfaces of legs
  • Sexual Dimorphism:
    •  Males have dark throats
• Natural History:
  • Habitat:
    •  A woodland species ranging upward to elevations of at least 3500 ft.
    • Occurring chiefly on forested slopes and hilltops
    • Often at long distances from water
  • Behavior:
    •  Like a small version of the Wood Frog in habits, leaping power, and gross appearance
  • Breeding:
    •  Breeds in small, shallow bodies of water in woods or at its edge
    • In ditches, pools along streams or those that form below hillside springs
    • Breeds February - April
    • Eggs are laid in groups of 10 to 50 attached to vegetation, total 400
• Voice: Sonogram : Call ( Dawson County )
  •  A rasp like that of Western Chorus Frog, but given more rapidly, higher in pitch, and more nasel in quality
  • Sounds like a wagon wheel turning without benefit of lubrication
  • Harsh, raspy "wreenk" or "reek"
• Tadpoles:
  • Tadpole stage: 50 - 56 days
  • Transformed size: 8 mm
  • 
  • LTRF 2/3; narrow midventral gap in marginal papillae absent; eyes lateral; east of Mississippi River; regardless of size, stage or range, notable colors or patterns in Section 10 absent; P-3 short, P-2/P-3 > 1.8; lateral surface of tail muscle pigmented throughout (even if diffusely), mottled, or graded from dark dorsally to pale ventrally (i.e., not bicolored)
  • throat not pigmented; dorsum uniformly medium brown; midventral marginal papillae uniserial; P-2/P-3 > 2.5; length of one side of A-2/width of medial gap ca. 3.0; lower jaw sheath narrow; spring breeder in temporary pools, often in or near woodlands in southwestern Pennsylvania to northeastern Mississippi and central Alabama
• Range:
  • In North America, disjunct range of three groups. The main portion of the range from southwest Pennsylvania and southeast Ohio to northern Tennessee; a second population in north central Alabama and adjacent parts of Tennessee and Mississippi; a small area in north Georgia and adjacent southeast Tennessee and southwest North Carolina
  • In Georgia, it is found in a few northern, mountainous counties.
    
  • 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. Museum specimens
  • In Pale 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. Literature only, no museum specimens.
  • 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 others
  • In Red: US Distribution from various sources

May 25, 2008 - wwknapp@mindspring.com