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Source credit: Guia de Sapos da Reserva Adolpho Ducke, Amazonia Central by Lima et al. 2005 INPA (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia) PPBio (Programa de Pesquisa em Biodiversidade) PELD (Pesquisas Ecológicas de Longa Duração)

Description
Males 39-53 mm, females 49-57 mm. The dorsum is brown with light brown or dark brown spots. The ventral surface is light cream. Some individuals have many whitish spots on the sides and back. The legs have darker transverse bars on a brown background. The males have a single vocal sac in the throat region. The iris is golden with black radiating lines.

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Brazil, Colombia

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

Abundant throughout the Reserva Florestal Adolpho Ducke in Brazil.

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
The species is arboreal and nocturnal, and occurs in continuous forest. Males mainly call at night from perches that vary from 0.5 - 4 m in height. Clutches contain about 33 eggs that are deposited in small bodies of water formed in epiphytes, terrestrial bromeliads, bases of Mauritia palm leaves, and holes in trees. Tadpoles develop to metamorphosis in the water bodies in which the eggs were deposited. Females return to the deposition sites at intervals of about five days and, usually in amplexus with the same male, produce eggs that serve as food for the tadpoles.

Comments
Osteocephalus taurinus has separate vocal sacs on each side of the head, and adult O. taurinus are twice as long as adult O. oophagus.

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2007 Osteocephalus oophagus <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/1010> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Jan 18, 2025.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2025. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 18 Jan 2025.

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