AmphibiaWeb - Hyla cinerea


Hyla cinerea Green Treefrog	family: Hylidae subfamily: Hylinae

hear call (563.7K MP3 file)

[call details here]

View distribution map using BerkeleyMapper.

Conservation Status (definitions)

IUCN (Red List) Status Least Concern (LC)
See IUCN account.

NatureServe Status Use NatureServe Explorer to see status.

CITES No CITES Listing

Other International Status None

National Status None

Regional Status None

Description

This moderately large North American frog is a wide-ranging species. The males are usually slightly smaller than the females. A pointed snout and flat head possessing two transverse rows of vomerine teeth are also observed. The toe pads on Hyla cinerea are large. The hind feet display extensive webbing and have two metatarsal tubercles between the toes. Some populations have individuals that lack lateral stripes, but normally H. cinerea exhibits a lateral white or yellow stripe from the jaw to the thigh on either side of the body. White or yellow spots are often scattered on the back. The external, subgular vocal sac is mostly white or yellow in males when not inflated. During breeding season, the sides of the sac may turn green.

The size of tadpoles ranges from 4.5-5.5 mm from hatching and may grow to 60 mm before metamorphosis in a 28-44 day span. Until tadpoles reach stage 25 or 26, they display continuous ontogenetic color changes. After this period, the body turns green and the venter turns yellow. The tail may have distinct yellow orbitonasal stripes, and dark mottling or reticulations. Large tadpoles sometimes retain the yellow interorbital stripe. A long tail, bulging lateral eyes, dextral anus and sinistral spiracle are other morphological features of the tadpole from this species.

Adults of this species normally turn to an ashen gray color when in preservative. The normally unobserved dorsolateral stripes in living species also appear over the subcutaneous insertions of lymph-sac septa. After months in preservation, H. cinerea displays a mostly dark green or brownish color (Conant and Collins 1998).

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: United States. Introduced: Puerto Rico.

U.S. state distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Alabama, Arkansas, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia

View distribution map using BerkeleyMapper.

The habitats most likely to house H. cinerea are swamps, sloughs and weedy margins of lakes and ponds. The lower Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains and the lower Mississippi River drainage are ideal locations of the species' environment (Connant and Collins 1998) . The range in the Mississippi River extends from Louisiana and Mississippi to the floodplains of southern and eastern Arkansas, western Tennessee and Kentucky. Southeastern Missouri and southern Illinois are also in this range. The Atlantic/Gulf Coastal range extends from the Chesapeake Bay and Virginia to the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Most of Alabama, Mississippi and all of Louisiana complete the range.

Introduced populations of this frog have been documented in Puerto Rico (Hedges 1996; 1999; Powell et al. 1996; Rivero 1998; Schwartz and Thomas 1975; Schwartz and Henderson 1985; 1991) , central Missouri (Johnson 2000) , a coastal island in Florida (Smith et al. 1993), and in Brownsville, Texas (Conant 1977; Smith and Kohler 1977). A population in east central Kansas that was once introduced to a fish farm has most likely been extirpated (Collins 1993).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors

A series of nasal barks described as sounding like "frank frank frank" or "quonk quonk quonk" have been observed as breeding vocalizations.

A complete reference of breeding vocalizations may be found in the Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles.

Trends and Threats
Many human activities negatively impact the populations and habitat of this species. Among the activities are the creation of artificial lakes/ponds (Platt et al. 1999; Redmer et al. 1999), fish introductions (Bancroft et al. 1983; Redmer et al. 1999), highway traffic noise (Barrass 1986), silver nitrate used in marking individuals (Thomas 1975), timber harvest (Hanlin et al. 2000; Phelps and Lancia 1995) and the introduction of the Cuban Treefrog (Wilson and Porras 1983).

References

Bancroft, G.T., Godley, J. S., Godley, D.T., Gross, N. N., Rojas, D. A., Sutphen, and McDiarmid, R. W. (1983). Large-scale operations management test of use of the white amur for control of problem aquatic plants; Report 1, Baseline studies; Volume V: The herpetofauna of Lake Conway. Technical Report A-78-2; N. U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Barrass, A. N. (1986). The effects of highway traffic noise on the phonotactic and associated reproduction behavior of selected anurans. Ph.D. dissertation. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennesse.

Collins, J. T. (1993). Amphibians and Reptiles in Kansas: Third Edition, revised. University of Kansas Museum of Natural History, Lawrence.

Conant, R. (1977). ''The Florida Water Snake (Reptilia, Serpentes, Colubridae) established at Brownsville, Texas, with comments on other herpetological introductions in the area.'' Journal of Herpetology, 11(2), 217-220.

Conant, R. and Collins, J.T. (1998). A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America. 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts.

Hanlin, H. G., Martin, F. D, Wike, L. D., and Bennett, S. H. (2000). ''Terrestrial activity, abundance and species richness of amphibians in managed forests in South Carolina.'' The American Midland Naturalist, 143(1), 70-83.

Hedges, S. B. (1996). ''The origin of West Indian amphibians and reptiles.'' Contributions to West Indian Herpetology: A Tribute to Albert Schwartz. R., Powell and R. W., Henderson, eds., Ithaca, New York, 95-128.

Hedges, S.B. (1999). ''Distribution patterns of amphibians in the West Indies.'' Regional Patterns of Amphibian Distribution: A Global Perspective. W. E., Duellman, eds., Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 211-254.

Johnson, T.R. (2000). Amphibians and Reptiles of Missouri: 2nd Edition. Conservation Commission of Missouri, Jefferson City.

Phelps, J. P. and Lancia, R. A. (1995). ''Effects of a clearcut on the herpetofauna of a South Carolina bottomland swamp.'' Brimleyana, 22, 31-45.

Platt, S.G., Russell, K.R., Snyder, W.E., Fontenot, L.W., and Miller, S. (1999). ''Distribution and conservation status of selected amphibians and reptiles in the Piedmont of South Carolina.'' Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society, 115, 8-19.

Powell, R., Henderson, R. W., Adler, K., and Dundee, H. (1996). ''An annotated checklist of West Indian amphibians and reptiles.'' Contributions to West Indian Herpetology: A Tribute to Albert Schwartz. R. Powell and R. W. Henderson, eds., Ithaca, New York.

Redmer, M., Brown, L. E., and Brandon, R. A. (1999). ''Natural history of the Birdvoiced Treefrog (Hyla avivoca) and Green Treefrog (Hyla cinerea) in southern Illinois.'' Natural History Survey Bulletin, 36(2), 37-67.

Rivero, J.A. (1998). Los Anfibios y Reptiles de Puerto Rico. University of Puerto Rico Press

Schwartz, A . and Henderson, R. W. (1985). A Guide to the Identification of the Amphibians and Reptiles of the West Indies Exclusive of Hispaniola. Milwaukee Public Museum, Milwaukee.

Schwartz, A. and Henderson, R. W. (1991). Amphibians and Reptiles of the West Indies: Descriptions, Distributions and Natural History. University Press of Florida, Florida.

Schwartz, A. and Thomas, R. (1975). A Check List of West Indian Amphibians and Reptiles. Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Smith, H. M., and Kohler, A. J. (1977). ''A survey of herpetological introductions in the United States and Canada.'' Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science, 80(1), 1-24.

Smith, L. L., Franz, R., and Dodd, C.K. Jr. (1993). ''Additions to the herpetofauna of Edgemont Key, Hillsborough County, Florida.'' Florida Scientist, 4(56), 231-234.

Thomas, A. E. (1975). ''Marking anurans with silver nitrate.'' Herpetological Review, 6, 12.

Wilson, L. D. and Porras, L. (1983). The Ecological Impact of Man on the South Florida Herpetofauna. University of Kansas Museum of Natural History Special Publication No. 9, Lawrence, Kansas.

Written by Kevin Gin (kevgin AT uclink.berkeley.edu), URAP
First submitted 2001-05-09
Edited by Kellie Whittaker (2007-12-14)

Citation: AmphibiaWeb: Information on amphibian biology and conservation. [web application]. 2013. Berkeley, California: AmphibiaWeb. Available: http://amphibiaweb.org/. (Accessed: Jun 17, 2013).

AmphibiaWeb's policy on data use.