#chirping frog

[hattei]

Another design sheet 2/3

[typhlonectes]

Rio Grande Chirping Frog (Eleutherodactylus cystignathoides campi), Houston, TX

While I was cleaning the water tray for one of the bird cages at the nature center, I found this little female Chirping Frog hiding underneath. She was only 2.3 cm, and the males are even smaller.

This tiny non-native frog was introduced into the Houston area, and along the Gulf Coast of Texas, from the Rio Grande Valley of Southern Texas. They lay their eggs in moist soil and under logs (instead of in standing water), and its presumed they were brought up here unintentionally in potted plants.

Some of you may have encountered them hopping out from under pots, stones, or wood in your gardens. More commonly, you may have heard their short chirp like squeaks on warm nights in residential neighborhoods (which sound to me like the rubber soles of shoes on the basketball court).