## Ornate Chorus Frog - Pseudacris ornata

- Diagnostic Features:
  - Size: 1 to 1.5 inches (25 to 38 mm)
  - Color:
    - From almost plain black to silvery white or to brilliant greens or reddish browns
    - The reddish brown coloration is most common
  - Other:
    - Black, masklike stripe running through the eye from nostril to shoulder
    - Dark, triangular spot often present between eyes
    - Dark spots on sides and near groin
    - Yellow in groin
    - Numerous small yellow spots on concealed portions of legs
  - Sexual Dimorphism:
    - ?
- Natural History:
  - Habitat:
    - Cypress ponds, pine barren ponds, flooded meadows, and flatwoods ditches; plus their environs
  - Behavior:
    - ?
  - Breeding:
    - Late fall, winter and early spring, November to March
    - Males often call at or in the water
    - Females deposit small irregular clusters of 10 to 100 eggs on stems or other objects
- Voice: Sonogram : Call ( Taylor County )
  - A series of shrill, loud, birdlike peeps, or like the ring of a steel chisel struck by a hammer, 65 - 80 times a minute
- Tadpoles:
  - Transformed size: 14 - 16 mm
  - LTRF 2/3; narrow midventral gap in marginal papillae absent; eyes lateral; east of Mississippi River; regardless of size, stage or range, notable colors or patterns in Section 10 absent; P-3 short, P-2/P-3 > 1.8; lateral surface of tail muscle pigmented throughout (even if diffusely), mottled, or graded from dark dorsally to pale ventrally (i.e., not bicolored)
  - LTRF 2/3; narrow midventral gap in marginal papillae absent; eyes lateral; east of Mississippi River regardless of size, stage or range, notable colors or patterns in Section 10 absent; P-3 short, P-2/P-3 > 1.8; lateral surface of tail muscle distinctly bicolored
  - throat not pigmented; small specimens dark with distinctly bicolored tail that becomes less distinctly bicolored with age, older specimens nearly uniformly black or with minor mottling; midventral marginal papillae uniserial; P-2/P-3 ca. 1.9; length of one side of A-2/width of medial gap ca. > 4.0; to 65 TL; lower jaw sheath medium to wide; spring breeder in temporary or permanent forest swamp pools in southeastern Louisiana to North Carolina except for southern two-thirds of Florida peninsula
- Range:
  - In North America, Coastal Plain from North Carolina to eastern Louisiana; souths through much of northern Florida
  - In Georgia, it is found below the fall line.

  - In Light Blue: Williamson, Gerald K. & Moulis, Robert A., Distribution of Amphibians and Reptiles in Georgia, Special Publication No. 3, Savannah Science Museum, Inc. Savannah, Georgia, 1994
  - In Green: Sound Recordings
  - In Yellow: From Both '94 study and Sound Recordings
  - In Magenta: Photograph, not found by '94, may or may not be sound record
  - In Medium Blue: Photograph and in '94 study, may or may not be sound record
  - In Orange: County Record by other Herp Atlas Volunteers
  - In Red: US Distribution from various sources

June 28, 2003 - wwknapp@mindspring.com