American green tree frog

Hyla cinerea

• Hyla c. cinerea
• Hyla c. evittata
• Hyla c. semifasciata

The Green Treefrog (Hyla cinerea), also American tree frog belonging to the genus Hyla, the genuine tree frogs.

Habitat

The species occurs in the southeastern United States to southern Texas in three subspecies. Preferred habitat are trees in wet forests or dense vegetation at the edge of ponds or slow-moving waters. The Green Tree Frog is nocturnal, the day he spends most with drawn limbs from a tree branch or reed stems nestled.

Appearance

The frog is on the top side light green with a whitish, dark -lined vertical stripes at the top and side of the body and individual bright speckles on the back; the belly is white. The color changes according to temperature from yellow-green to dark brown. Its head -body length is 60 to 63 mm. The somewhat smaller males have a vocal sac on the throat. In spring and summer they can hear at night its reputation, repeated, metallic -sounding croaking, reminiscent of the choir of cowbells. (MP3, 162 kB)

Development

The mating season begins in March, in the northern area of ​​distribution only in May and lasts into the summer on. The spawn is deposited in numerous lumps in ponds or floating aquatic plants. Within four to six days hatch the tadpoles who spend about 60 days in the water until the metamorphosis is complete.