Asian White-lipped Treefrog
Polypedates leucomastyx
Distribution, Climate & Habitat: south east Asia, including some Philippine and Indonesian islands. Found almost everywhere humans are, from forests to roadside ditches. They can occupy a wide range of habitats, from trees and leaf litter to bathrooms and water tanks - anywhere with sufficient dampness!
Size: females can reach 7.5 centimetres from snout to vent; males are smaller at around 5 centimetres
Diet: insects and other invertebrates
Appearance:
an orange-brown with darker markings above, paler below. There is usually a
dark 'V' shaped marking on the top of the head, between the eyes. Four dark
rows of markings occur along the back, hence its alternative name of 'Asian
Four-lined treefrog'. Being active by night, their large eyes facilitate hunting
in low light levels.
Habits: the female produces a foam nest and secures it to vegetation overhanging a small body of water during the wet season; this nest of foam serves to protect the tadpoles from drying out. When the next rains come, the nest and tadpoles are washed into the water below, where they feed and develop into frogs.
Fascinating Fact:
this species is very adaptable and can be found in habitats as diverse as gardens,
parks, forests, ponds, rice paddies, bathrooms, water tanks, and banana plantations
(which gives it the local name of Banana frog). It is this ability to colonise
a wide variety of habitats, most connected with man and his activities, that
makes this perhaps one of the most successful frogs in the world