Southern Chorus Frog - Pseudacris nigrita

• Diagnostic Features:
  • Size: 0.75 to 1.25 inches (19 to 32 mm)
  • Color:
    •  Light gray, tan, or silvery, often very pale
  • Other:
    •  Prominant white line along lip
    • The dark stripe from snout to groin and passing through the eye, may be broken up past the shoulder
    • The three dorsal stripes have a strong tendency to break up into rows of large spots, especially the middle one, which usually forks into two rows posteriorly
    • Snout tends to be more pointed than other chorus frogs 
    • Belly usually white
  • Sexual Dimorphism:
    •  
• Natural History:
  • Habitat:
    •  Pine flatwoods, wet meadows, roadside ditches, moist woodlands, etc.
  • Behavior:
    •  Very difficult to locate, even when calling, like to hide under tufts of vegetation
  • Breeding:
    •  November - April
    • Females deposit small irregular egg clusters on stems, leaves, or other objects in shallow water
• Voice: Sonogram : Call ( Taylor County )
  •  A trill resembling the sound of a ratchet but with a musical quality
  • About 8 to 10 beats to each trill
  • Trills are repeated at regular intervals
  • Sporadic calling may also occur in non-breeding season after Heavy Rains
• Tadpoles:
  • Tadpole stage: 50 days
  • Transformed size: 9 - 15 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)
  • throat pigmented with chains of punctate melanophores that form a reticulate pattern; dorsum uniformly dark to medium brown with pale dorsolateral stripes; midventral marginal papillae biserial; P-2/P-3 3.2; length of one side of A-2/width of medial gap ca. 2.6; to 35 TL; lower jaw sheath narrow; spring breeder in temporary pools in open areas in Coastal Plain from southern Mississippi to North Carolina
• Range:
  •  In North America, this frog is found from eastern North Carolina to northern Florida and southeast Mississippi
  • 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. Museum specimens
  • In Pale 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. Literature only, no museum specimens.
  • 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