Wallace's flying frog

Drawing of Alfred Wallace's flying frog from book The Malay Archipelago

The Wallace - flight Frog ( Rhacophorus nigropalmatus ) is a species in the genus authentics rowing frogs. With the help of the flight webbing between his toes, he can sail up to 20 meters. It is named after the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who explored the mid-19th century the Malay Archipelago and the first copies sent this flight frog to Europe.

Features

This frog is 9-10 cm long and has very large, protruding eyes. Also clearly visible is the tympanum. Like all frogs helm of the Wallace flight frog lives in trees, also features as a climbing aid broadened adhesive discs on the finger and toe ends. The adhesive discs at the finger tips are larger than those at the ends of toes, especially great on the third finger of this frog. The large webbed fingers and toes are yellow at their base but black. This feature owes the Wallace flight Frog its scientific epithet nigropalmatus. When closely related Rhacophorus reinwardtii go swimming the dark skin coloration at the base on bluish. The skins are rarely used for swimming, but can be stretched while jumping like little parachutes. They allow the frog gliding from tree to tree and between the floors of tropical forest vegetation. The back of the frog is light green, usually with white spots, the underside is white to pale yellow.

Dissemination

The range of this species extends in East Asia from southern Thailand through the Malay Peninsula to the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. He lives typically in the evergreen tropical rain forest. He is there not rare, although it is usually only seen when he leaves the higher layers of the tree crowns. This is done for the purpose of mating and oviposition.

Alleged sightings of the Wallace - flight frog in Vietnam, Northern Thailand, Laos and southern China probably relate to the type Rhacophorus kio.

Nutrition

The diet consists of insects. There are reports that the frogs will also eat young small mammals.

Reproduction

After heavy rains the frogs leave the treetops and migrate into deeper layers of vegetation. About standing water or rain water pools (eg Wallowing by Bartsch wines ) attach the frogs foam nests on leaves. The females produce a secretion that they beat his legs to a foam. For this foam nest is shaped, in which laid the eggs and fertilized by the male. The tadpoles hatch within the nest and can be in a certain developmental age fall in the underlying waters. After metamorphosis, the young frogs leave the water.

System

Rhacophorus maximus, Rhacophorus dennysii and Rhacophorus feae were originally regarded as a sub- species of Rhacophorus nigropalmatus. More detailed genetic and morphological investigations are still in progress and such other procedures as new species are separated within the genus Rhacophorus.