Pool Frog

Pool Frog ( Pelophylax lessonae) amplexus; Males with more typical of the spawning coloration

The little water frog ( Rana lessonae or Pelophylax lessonae ), also known as Small pond frog, heard within the order of Anura to the family of the Real frogs ( Ranidae ). In addition, he is expected to follow appearance, biology and distribution of the water frogs that have recently been questioned by many authors in a separate genus Pelophylax. Within this hard to looking complex it forms with the Marsh Frog the parental species of the hybrids pond frog.

Features

The head -body length of the males is 4.5 to 5.5 centimeters - so they are only slightly larger than a frog - the females are 5.5 to 6.5 inches long. The top is mostly grass green colored and speckled with rather regular black or brown spots. Then there are the water typical average frog back line and reddish glands strips on the back pages. Individuals with black - brownish color sample proportions are also quite common, especially in female specimens. The iris is intensely colored yellow in the male during the mating season, as elsewhere dominate yellow body color at this time; their vocal sacs are white. The lower legs are remarkably short in relation to the hull; the hock is large and semicircular.

Reproduction

The whirring Rufreihen the mating call of the males take about 1.5 seconds to be very fast, " compressed " sound sequence.

There are deducted spawn clumps, which are significantly smaller than in principle, in the brown frogs. The eggs are brownish on the upper side, the lower pole is colored bright yellow. Most of the spawning between mid-May and mid-June can be found. A spawn clumps often contains "only" a few hundred eggs. However, the females put more Eiballen after the other. The clutch size is from 600 to 3000, the Eidurchmesser 1.5 to two millimeters.

Older tadpoles, with a greenish ground color and dark speckle pattern falling on by headlong flight reactions. The total length is 40 to 80 millimeters. A distinction from other water frog larvae is not safe to do.

Habitat and Distribution

The Little Frog is not so strictly bound to water bodies like his relatives, the pond and the marsh frog. Typical habitat is in northern Germany, for example, bog habitats within forest areas. Adults and juveniles are often far removed from the waters. Preferably used as spawning smaller, vegetation-rich ponds, pools and ditches, as well as present in their environment swamps and marshes. In large lakes and rivers, the species is hardly to be found. A closer bond seems regional - in the north of its range in particular - to boggy to insist mesotrophic habitats. Because of these claims, the kind missing in certain heavily anthropogenically influenced habitats.

With the exception of parts of the north has the kind of presence throughout Germany. Due to the determination problem within the water frog group (see: pond frog! ) Is the exact distribution of Pelophylax however lessonae still poorly understood. The total area of ​​distribution extends from France over central Europe to Russia and Italy.

Threats and conservation

Small water frogs seem - at least at the edges of their range, such as in the northern German lowlands - to be more dependent on specific habitat qualities such as half-bog waters ( stenökes or stenotopes behavior) and are less often and more severely affected by environmental changes as euryökere species. In some other regions, their risk situation is probably similar to that of the pond frog, which they usually yes also form joint populations.

Legal protection status (selection)

• Fauna-Flora -Habitat Directive ( FFH Directive ) Annex IV ( strictly protected species )
• Federal Nature Conservation Act ( Federal Nature Conservation Act ): strictly protected

National Red List classifications (selection)

• Red List Federal Republic of Germany: G - to accept risk, but status unknown
• Red List of Austria: VU (corresponds endangered)
• Red List of Switzerland: NT ( near threatened )