Description
A rather small frog (males 21–24 mm) from the eastern savannas. Body and snout elongated, snout pointed. In the breeding season, and possibly also outside it, males have black spinosities on the hindfeet and sometimes on the hindlegs and ventrum. Males larger than females. Pupil horizontal. Colour in life translucent green, yellow or brownish with a conspicuous white canthal and dorsolateral line delimited by rather large black chromatophores. The green colour disappears after preservation, so the white lines are only indicated by two rows of chromatophores on those individuals that were green in life, still visible in the brown specimens. Ventrum whitish. Throat and underside of limbs green in the green specimens, whitish in the others. The females may all be green.

Hyperolius parkeri has a voice quite different from other Hyperolius, males which are larger than females, a strange calling position and male spinosities. Anatomical studies may reveal that it should be separated into its own genus.

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, United Republic of

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

Found in the low-lying, coastal savannas of East Africa. Although scarce in collections it is probably not a rare form, but because of its cryptic habits it is not easily found.

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
The males call from well-concealed positions among grass and leaves. They seem to vocalise from the resting position, not erect as in other members of the genus. The voice is a fast, high-pitched trill, quite different from the voice of other Hyperolius species. After an initial sound there is a repercussion of a number of identical figures at a rate of about 20 per second and a duration of about 1.5 sec. There is a well-defined frequency-intensity maximum at about 4500–5000 cps.

Loveridge has observed the eggs. There are about 70–110, white and surrounded by a colourless jelly, and are placed above water.

Comments
This account was taken from "Treefrogs of Africa" by Arne Schiøtz with kind permission from Edition Chimaira publishers, Frankfurt am Main.

References

Schiøtz, A. (1999). Treefrogs of Africa. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt am Main.

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2008 Hyperolius parkeri: Parker's Reed Frog <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/561> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Dec 12, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 12 Dec 2024.

AmphibiaWeb's policy on data use.