Theloderma asperum

species of amphibian

The Malaya pied warted tree frog, hill garden bug-eyed frog, Larut bug-eyed tree frog, or pied warty tree frog (Theloderma asperum) is a frog. It lives in Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar. People say they live in Sumatra and Borneo too, but scientists say these are probably different frogs. People have seen this frog as high as 1400 meters above sea level. It lives in tropical forests and subtropical forests.[2][3][1]

Theloderma asperum
LC (IUCN3.1Q)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Rhacophoridae
Genus: Theloderma
Species:
T. asperum
Binomial name
Theloderma asperum
(Boulenger, 1886)
Synonyms[2]
  • Ixalus asper Boulenger, 1886
  • Rhacophorus asperrimus Ahl, 1927
  • Philautus asper Smith, 1930
  • Rhacophorus (Philautus) asperrimus Ahl, 1931
  • Philautus asperrimus Bourret, 1942
  • Theloderma asperum Taylor, 1962
  • Aquixalus asper Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2009
  • Theloderma (Theloderma) asperum Poyarkov, Orlov, Moiseeva, Pawangkhanant, Ruangsuwan, Vassilieva, Galoyan, Nguyen, and Gogoleva, 2015

This frog is 25 – 35 mm long from nose to rear end. The skin on the frog's back is brown and black in color with white warts. This makes the frog look like bird droppings. This helps it hide from animals that want to eat it. Sometimes people call it "bird poop frog" in English.[3]

The frog has disks on its toes for climbing. This frog has some webbed skin on its feet.[3]

Other frogs in Theloderma have vomerine teeth but this frog does not.[3]

This frog lays eggs in holes in trees that have water in them, in rainwater, and in other things that have water in them.[1]

The tadpoles are gray in color.[3]

This frog lives in warm and medium forests. People see them on short plants. Scientists think it lives in water-filled holes in trees. People have seen this frog between 0 and 1400 meters above sea level.[1]

Many of the places this frog lives are protected parks.[1]

Danger

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Scientists say this frog is not in danger of dying out because it lives in a large place and because there are many of these frogs alive now. It may be in some danger because people cut down forests to get wood to build with.[1]

First paper

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  • Boulenger, G. A. (1886). "First report on additions to the batrachian collection in the Natural-History Museum". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 1886: 411–416.

References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group (2022). "Hill Garden Bug-eyed Frog: Theloderma asperum". The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 3.1. p. e.T121387091A63870316. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-2.RLTS.T121387091A63870316.en. 121387091. Retrieved July 7, 2024.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Frost, Darrel R. "Theloderma asperum (Boulenger, 1886)". Amphibian Species of the World, an Online Reference. Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History, New York. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Ann T. Chang (August 18, 2019). Ann T. Chang; Michelle S. Koo (eds.). "Theloderma asperum (Boulenger, 1886)". AmphibiaWeb. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved May 10, 2023.