Pacific tree frog
The Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla) is a species of tree frog. They live on the West Coast of North America. This includes California, Oregon and Washington in the United States, and British Columbia in Canada. They live on the ground, but some have been found living in places 10,000 feet above sea level. They are the only frogs to make a "ribbit" sound.[3] Human beings also brought it to Ketchikan, Alaska.[2][4]
| Pacific tree frog | |
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Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Order: | Anura |
| Family: | Hylidae |
| Genus: | Pseudacris |
| Species: | P. regilla
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| Binomial name | |
| Pseudacris regilla | |
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This frog is small. The adult frog is 3/4 of an inch to 2 inches long from nose to rear end. It has a stripe near each eye. Sometimes there is a mark in the shape of a triangle on its head and dark marks on the legs. The frog's main body can be gray, green, light brown, brown, or black. in color. This frog can change color. It can be dark in color with no spots, then medium in color with spots, then light in color with no spots. It takes the frog about 8 to 10 minutes to change from dark to light. This frog has large disks on its toes for climbing and webbed skin on its back feet.[4]
This frog eats insects: leaf-hoppers, spring-tails, flies, stoneflies, ants, wasps, beetles, and caterpillars. It can also eat spiders, snails, and isopods.
This frog moves around at night but it does sometimes move during the day. It can climb trees but it spends most of its time on the ground.[4]
The female frog lays 5 to 60 eggs at a time in bodies of water at least 4 inches deep. The eggs sometimes stick to twigs or other things underwater. The tadpoles are about 45 mm long. They are black or yellow-brown in color with a white or near-white belly.[4]
Pacific Tree Frog Media
A Pacific tree frog (green morph) sitting on a sunflower leaf stem, Nanoose Bay British Columbia
This tree frog is exhibiting a common green color morph, as fall sets into its native Garry oak meadow near Lake Cowichan, British Columbia.
Blended color morph green with brown stripes
Brown color morph held in hand.
Side view showing a color variant.
References
- ↑ Geoffrey Hammerson; Georgina Santos-Barrera (2004). "Pseudacris regilla". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN. 2004: e.T55897A11376273. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2004.RLTS.T55897A11376273.en.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Frost, Darrel R. "Pseudacris regilla (Baird and Girard, 1852)". Amphibian Species of the World, an Online Reference. Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History, New York. Retrieved August 5, 2022.
- ↑ Nash, Pat (February 2005). "The RRRRRRRRiveting Life of Tree Frogs". Archived from the original on 9 March 2012. Retrieved 8 January 2011.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Sunny Shah (May 9, 2001). Michelle S. Koo (ed.). "Pseudacris regilla: Pacific Treefrog, Pacific Chorus Frog". AmphibiaWeb. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved August 5, 2022.
Other websites
Media related to Pseudacris regilla at Wikimedia Commons
- Fact sheet, taxonomic details, distribution maps, slideshow, and images of Pseudacris regilla at ZipcodeZoo.com.
- Californiaherps.com description - Includes detailed description, photos, recordings of calls
- mister-toad.com Pacific Tree Frog description - Description of the ecology of Pacific Tree Frogs with photographs, audio and video.
- http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/herps/amphibid/species/hylareg.htm