Upland Chorus Frog - Pseudacris feriarum

• Diagnostic Features:
  • Size: 0.75 to 1.5 inches (19 to 35 mm)
  • Color:
    • Varies from brown to gray with a pinkinsh cast common
  • Other:
    • Light line along upper lip (sometimes the first thing you see of the frog when looking for them)
    • Dark stripe from snout to groin, passing through eye
    • Middorsal pattern may be striped, partially striped, spotted, or lacking
    • Middorsal pattern basically in three rows or stripes
    • Dark triangle between eyes usually present
    • Underside cream colored, but often with dark stippling on chest
    • Length of tibia about 1/2 length from snout to vent 
  • Sexual Dimorphism:
    •  
• Natural History:
  • Habitat:
    • This frog prefers grassy swales, moist woodlands, river-bottom swamps, and environs of ponds, bogs, and marshes.
  • Behavior:
    • Very difficult to locate, even when calling
  • Breeding:
    • Breeding occurs from November to March, depending on the temperature and rains.
    • Eggs are laid in clusters of about 60 each and are attached to vegetation
    • A female lays about 1,000 eggs
• Voice: Sonogram : Call ( Taliaferro, Walton, & Gilmer Counties )
  • A regularly repeated crreek or prreep
  • Usually calls from very open situations
  • One of the first calls of the spring
• Tadpoles:
  • Tadpole stage: 60 - 90 days
  • Transformed size: 9.5 mm
  • 
  • LTRF 2/2; narrow midventral gap in marginal papillae present or not; eyes lateral
  • P-2/P-3 > 2.8 (if P-3 is present); length of one side of A- 2/width of medial gap < 2.1; few submarginal papillae laterally or none; dorsum of tail muscle uniformly dark; winter and spring breeder, most common in temporary sites usually in open, grassy sites from central Montana south to central Arizona and east to Atlantic Ocean (extremely variable)
  • 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 distinctly bicolored
  •  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, sometimes with black dots, to semi-transparent if habitat turbid; midventral marginal papillae uniserial; P-2/P-3 > 2.7; length of one side of A-2/width of medial gap ca. < 2.1; lower jaw sheath narrow to medium; spring breeder, usually in temporary lentic sites in grasslands throughout the designated area but seldom gets onto Coastal Plain
• Range:
  • In North America, this frog is found from northern New Jersey to the Florida panhandle; west to east Texas and southeast Oklahoma. Isolated colinies in coastal South Carolina and Georgia
  • In Georgia, it is found primarily above the fall zone, with isolated populations in the south and coastal..

    

  • 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