Bronze/Green Frog - Rana clamitans
- Diagnostic Features:
- Size: 2 to 3.5 inches (54 to 86 mm)
- Color:
- Other:
- Smooth frog
- Green coloration may be present on upper lip
- Prominent tympanum
- Dorsolateral folds do NOT extend to groin
- White ventral surfaces with dark, irregular
markings
- Fully webbed feet, except fourth toe
- Sexual Dimorphism:
- Male throat has yellowish coloration
- Male has a large tympanum
- Male has stout forlegs and thumbs
- Subspecies Differentiation:
- Green frog has markings in strong contrast with ground
color
- Bronze frog does not.
- Coloration intergrades between, even at individual
sites.
- Natural History:
- Habitat:
- This frog shelters in logs and crevices, lives in swamps
and near streams.
- Behavior:
- Solitary and nocturnal, it remains under shelter most of
the time.
- Breeding:
- Breeding occurs from March to August, primarily May to
June.
- About 3000 eggs are laid in a raftlike surface film
- summer breeder in usually permanent, often swampy
sites.
- Voice: Sonogram
: Call
( McDuffie, Henry, Rabun, & Walton Counties )
- Single, twanging note repeated 3-4 times in succession
- "c'tung"
- Paired, internal vocal sacs
- Both throat and sacs inflate during call
- A high pitched "squeenk" is often given as a startled frog
jumps to safety
- Tadpoles:
- Most tadpoles transform in a few months, but some
overwinter
-
- tadpole larger, to 90 TL; dorsum dark or pale brown to gray
with a few dots with fuzzy borders and subtle vermiculations;
no spots in dorsal fin, but distal third of tail commonly with
black, somewhat haphazard, more or less rectangular markings,
fins commonly densely speckled; venter densely white in large
specimens, usually with silver patches of iridophores in
younger specimens, body notably depressed and long dorsal fin
with low arch.
- Range: Green & Bronze Frog
- In North America, exotic range: Vancouver Island and
adjacent British Columbia and Washington and near Salt Lake
City, Utah; native range: most of eastern North America east of
central Oklahoma. Bronze frog is the more southern
subspecies.
- In Georgia, it is found throughout the state.
- 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
