Northern cricket frog

The northern cricket frog (Acris crepitans) is a species of small hylid frog native to the United States and northeastern Mexico. Despite being members of the tree frog family, they are not arboreal. It has two recognized subspecies.

Northern cricket frog
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Hylidae
Genus: Acris
Species:
A. crepitans
Binomial name
Acris crepitans
Baird, 1854
Subspecies

Acris crepitans crepitans
Acris crepitans paludicola

Description

The northern cricket frog is one of North America's three smallest vertebrates, ranging from 19–38 mm (0.75–1.50 in) long. Its dorsal coloration varies widely, and includes greys, greens, and browns, often in irregular blotching patterns. One New York biologist has identified six distinct color morphs and four pattern morphs, and several intergrades between these.[2] Typically there is dark banding on the legs and a white bar from the eye to the base of the foreleg. The skin has a bumpy texture. It is very similar to the southern cricket frog, Acris gryllus, found in the US Southeastern Coastal Plain, but with some overlap along the Fall Line. The southern cricket frog has longer legs, with less webbing on the hind feet, and a more pointed snout, though northern cricket frogs have been observed with snouts indistinguishable from those of the southern species,[3] and the markings on the back of the thigh are typically more sharply defined than that of the northern cricket frog,[4] though biologists have recorded northern cricket frogs in the northern fringes of their range with extremely sharp posterior leg stripes.

Behavior and diet

Northern cricket frogs are diurnal and generally active much of the year, except in midwinter in northern areas when the water is frozen. Their primary diet is small (13 to 38 mm (0.5 to 1.5 in) long) insects, including mosquitos. They are, in turn, preyed upon by a number of species, including birds, fish, and other frogs. To escape predators, they are capable of leaping up to 3 feet in a single jump and are excellent swimmers.

Reproduction
Acris crepitans eggs

Breeding generally occurs from May through July. The males call from emergent vegetation with a high-pitched, short, pebble-like call which is repeated at an increasing rate. The sound suggests pebbles being clicked together, much like a cricket, hence the name. One egg is laid at a time, generally attached to a piece of vegetation. The 14 millimetres (0.55 in) tadpoles hatch in only a few days, and undergo metamorphosis in early fall. Maturity is usually reached in less than a year.

Habitat

Cricket frogs prefer the edges of slow-moving, permanent bodies of water. Large groups of them can often be found together along the muddy banks of shallow streams, especially during premigratory clustering. The northern cricket frog has been observed to hibernate upland, often at considerable distances from water.

Subspecies
Acris crepitans blanchardi
  • Eastern cricket frog, A. c. crepitans (Baird, 1854)
  • Coastal cricket frog, A. c. paludicola (Burger, Smith and Smith, 1949)

Geographic distribution
  • A. c. crepitans is found from New York, south to Florida, and west along the Gulf Coast states to Texas.
  • A. c. paludicola occurs in southwestern Louisiana to East Texas.

Conservation status

Frogs such as A. crepitans are important as an indicator of wetland health and general environmental quality in the areas they inhabit.

References
  1. Hammerson, G.; Santos-Barrera, G. & Church, D. (2004). "Acris crepitans". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2004: e.T55286A11272584. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2004.RLTS.T55286A11272584.en.
  2. (Westerveld,1977).
  3. (Westerveld, 1998).
  4. (Conant et al. 1998, Martof et al. 1980).
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