Painted frog

Discoglossus pictus

TAXONOMY

Discoglossus pictus Otth, 1837, Sicily. Three subspecies are recognized.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

French: Discoglosse peint; German: Gemalter Scheibenzüatngler; Spanish: Sapillo pintojo.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Painted frogs have stout bodies with flat, wide heads, and their pupils are shaped like upside-down teardrops. Average body size is 2.76–3.15 in (70–80 mm). They are quite colorful (as the common name implies), and vary from having large dark spots with bright edges, two dark brown bands, or a band along the back and two along the sides. They may also have longitudinal glands on the back.

DISTRIBUTION

Mediterranean Africa in Tunisia, northern Algeria, and Morocco; Sicily (Italy), Malta, and Gozo (Ghawdax); one subspecies introduced to France and Spain.

HABITAT

Painted frogs seem to prefer human-made habitats, including orchards and vineyards, stone-sided cisterns, irrigation pipes and canals in cultivated areas, campsites, and cattle tracks filled with water. They can also be found near small brooks, as well as in holes they dig under stones. One subspecies lives and breeds in brackish water.

BEHAVIOR

Most of the knowledge of this species has been acquired from studies of the introduced populations and regards their reproductive behavior. They are primarily nocturnal, and excavate small, flat burrows under stones to use as refugia.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Painted frogs actively forage at night for insects and other invertebrates.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Mating season occurs from January to early November. Males clasp females in the lumbar region, and after 35 seconds to two hours, depending on the subspecies, females will lay up to 50 eggs. Females mate with several males consecutively, laying up to 1,000 eggs in one night. The eggs have no common jelly coating, and form a loose mass on the water surface, or sink to the bottom. Eggs usually hatch within six days of mating, and in one to three months, tadpoles metamorphose. Adulthood is reached after one year.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Not threatened. However, in Europe, populations that live in or near agricultural habitats appear to be in decline because of the loss of farmlands. Those living near rivers and seasonal ponds seem to be less threatened. Populations in France are protected, and several in northern Africa are endangered.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

None known.