Browse Old Articles

Safari of the week

CLICK HERE TO SEE FULL DETAILS OR TO BOOK.

Frogs building nests by folding leaves

14/09/2009 16:31:33 world/Asia/Frog_leaf_folding

September 2009. Nest building by leaf folding is a rare behaviour in anuran amphibians, with previous reports for only two genera, the Subsaharan African Afrixalus, and Central and South American Phyllomedusa. A third frog, an Indian treefrog, Rhacophorus lateralis, has been studied during specialized nest building behaviour, which was observed in natural habitat in Kerala.

This leaf folding behaviour of is the first report in the family Rhacophoridae, as well as in Asiatic amphibians. Nesting behaviour of R. lateralis is unique among Rhacophorus - a purse-like nest is made over water by folding a single leaf around the egg mass (embryos and translucent foam) by the female alone. The function of this activity is to prevent desiccation of eggs in open sunlight.

Courtesy of http://frogindia.org/

Read the comments about this article and leave your own comment

To post a comment you must be logged in.
CLICK HERE TO LOG IN AND POST A COMMENT

New user? Register here

Name:
Email:

Click join and we will email you with your password. You can then sign on and join the discussions right away.

Created by Wild Dog Design & Bright Interactive

Visit sponsor