Cope's gray treefrog

Hyla chrysoscelis

SUBFAMILY

Hylinae

TAXONOMY

Hyla femoralis chrysoscelis Cope, 1880, Dallas, Texas, United States.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

None known.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Males are 1.2–1.8 in (30–45 mm) long; females are 1.6–2.2 in (40–53 mm) long. This is a moderately robust treefrog with lightly tuberculate skin on the dorsum, which is green or gray with darker blotches. There is a white spot below the eye. Hidden surfaces of the hind limbs are yellow; the belly is white.

DISTRIBUTION

Eastern North America; the exact range is unknown, because it overlaps with the morphologically identical gray treefrog (Hyla versicolor), which differs in call and chromosome number.

HABITAT

Primarily hardwood but also coniferous forest.

BEHAVIOR

Nocturnal and arboreal.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Feeds on a variety of small arthropods.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Breeding takes place after warm spring rains. Males call from bushes and trees bordering ponds; females approach and nudge calling males. Amplexus may last several hours, during which time the female ovulates. In the course of amplexus females carry males to water. The ovarian complement is 485–3,840 eggs, which are laid in small packets of five to 31 eggs attached

to aquatic vegetation. Eggs hatch in four to five days into free-swimming tadpoles that require seven to eight weeks to metamorphose. Females may deposit three decreasingly smaller clutches at intervals of eight to 35 days.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Not threatened.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

None known.