litoria-ewingii « WordPress.com Tag Feed

Litoria ewingii - Brown Tree Frogs

Sue McB — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 05:56:10 +0000

When down by the lake in search of emerging dragonflies early one morning, I discovered the water reeds were full of these gorgeous little frogs – Litoria ewingii, who come in a variety of colours, and are rarely over 3 cms long. I love them! By the time the sun is coming over the trees and it begins to warm up, they are gone, hiding in the grasses and reeds on ground level.

Click on any image for a larger view.

Little Froggies.......Littoria ewingii

Sue McB — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 07:43:09 +0000

There are several species of small frog that live around the garden and by my lake. At night the calls are deafening, and I often find them in the grass or garden when working outside. These however, live in the Hydrangeas which are just outside my back door. They pretty much vanish through the winter, but at this time of year there are many young ones to be found amongst the leaves. They are Littoria ewingii or Southern Brown Tree Frogs and the adults only reach about 45mm in size. These ones are tiny, about the size of a finger nail, and to give you an idea, one in the photos below, is sitting on the underside of my little finger. As usual, click on an individual photo to enlarge it.

Local Frogs

Sue McB — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 04:37:04 +0000

With Spring approaching plus endless rain, the local frog population is very vocal, and one can hear them in most parts of this large garden. I often find them when weeding or doing other things in the garden, and will sometimes capture them for a short while, take some photos and then release again where they were found. Here are a couple of my recent finds – they are all very small.

The one on the right is the most common Litoria ewinii, the Southern Brown Tree Frog. As there is a huge variation in colour and markings in this species, the other smaller one may be the same, but I am not sure and cannot find a way of identifying it clearly from this source. It was very small, and was found buried rather than just under some leaf litter so could be something different as it also seemed to have a different shape. This is it sitting on my thumbnail.

Some others…

PS. Today ( 1/8/12) I received an answer from the Melbourne Museum Discovery Centre, to whom I had sent the above photo in the hope they might identify this little dark frog for me. This is their response:-
This is probably either a Common Eastern Froglet (Crinia signifera) or an Eastern Sign-bearing Froglet (aka Beeping Froglet – Crinia parasignifera). These two froglets would probably be found in this area and they can really only be identified easily by their calls – the calls can be listened to on the MV website at http://museumvictoria.com.au/bioinformatics/frog/
So now we know!

Little Frog

Sue McB — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 06:56:07 +0000

There is a dearth of good photo subjects in my garden at the moment – it’s mid winter, cold, mostly wet, no flowers, few insects……but today I found a frog!

I think it is a Litoria ewingii, or Brown Tree Frog (despite finding it under a log) and it measured only about 3 cms from nose to tail. There are at least 36 different frogs listed as occurring in Victoria and many of them look similar, while even in their own species there can be a wide variation in colour and marking. There is an excellent key to identification of frogs here which I have checked, and I’m also going to try and get some external help from someone who is a froggy expert, so there may be more later.

P.S This is a quote from the advice I was given as to the identity of this frog – “the toe pads mean it can’t be anything but a tree frog and that means Litoria. The dark patch on the back makes it ewingii.” So it seems I was correct.

It’s nice to be shooting with my 100mm macro lens again!

Macro Moments.....

Sue McB — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 07:06:41 +0000

I’ve been invited to add a photo to this group………

So I have………

Litoria ewingii

Pete Darwin — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 06:22:04 +0000

I found this guy on my friend’s doorstep out in Mt Moriac, Victoria, Australia, recently late at night. The porch light had been left on all night, and this little guy was sitting on his metal doormat hunting the insects that were fluttering around above his head. I’m guessing they’d fall to the ground and he’d pounce on them!

Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe the species is Litoria ewingii. Lots of them were spotted hopping across the road as we drove home as well.

Christmas Eve

Sue McB — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 03:25:20 +0000

Hang in there…..

I’ll be back after Christmas.

Seasons Greetings to you all.

Soft, dew kissed, comfy and sweet smelling........Home Sweet Home

Sue McB — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 07:39:51 +0000

On Sunday morning , when I walked past one of the Apricot Nectar rose bushes, an unusual patch of colour caught my eye – a tiny Litoria ewingii, or Southern Brown Tree Frog getting settled for a day’s snooze. My garden is full of these delightful creatures, I hear their calls every day, and often come across them when pulling weeds – but this was the first time I had seen one here.

Disturbed by my attention, this particular one hopped off this rose……but I later saw it under a petal on another bush. Then, as I walked away, I turned to look again, and saw these……What a life!

As usual, all with the Canon EOS 550D, macro lens and using a tripod.

Litoria ewingii - Brown Tree Frog

thomasparkes — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 10:39:07 +0000

Well enough doom and gloom from the Grampians for the moment.

Here is a image of a thumb sized brown tree frog on a leaf of my raspberry bushes just before the massive deluge.
This one must have been a baby as they grow a bit bigger, and they are plentiful around the house.

Make sure you click on the image to enlarge it.

Canon 40D, 12mm extension tube, 50mm f/1.4, 580ex Speedlite.

Litoria ewigii - Southern Brown Tree Frogs

Sue McB — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 20:08:22 +0000

More photos of the tiny frogs…….it was a warm and damp day, they were visible in good light, and a little more active than usual, so some were caught mid jump.

All taken with the Macro 100mm f2.8.

Hope you enjoy the slideshow…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Ballet anyone....??

Sue McB — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 20:10:02 +0000

Do you remember the wonderful film made by the Royal Ballet of the Tales of Beatrix Potter?

I think these frogs are practicing for the audition for the role of Jeremy Fisher…………

These shots were all taken yesterday with the Canon EOS 550 and Macro lens. The frogs were out all day in the Hydrangeas, enjoying the warm and damp weather – aren’t they great? I shall probably post more froggy pictures on my photo blog later today.

Boxing Day Macro Shots.......

Sue McB — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 03:28:28 +0000

Barely a couple of centimetres long, these little tree frogs, Litoria ewingii have been sitting among the Hydrangea leaves during daylight for most of the last few days, probably because the weather has been favourable with high humidity and not too hot. They make great subjects for photography, often remaining still for ages before hopping away.

With the warmer weather come the flies………

Litoria ewingii, and Orb weaving spider

Sue McB — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 20:58:49 +0000

Both of these creatures have been featured before, but they are so photogenic, I’m posting more shots of them. The Southern Brown Tree Frog was found sleeping on a leaf in the sun at midday – most unusual, but it enabled me to get closer than usual before it hopped away…..In reality this little frog is less than an inch in size.

These were taken with the CanonEOS 550 D, and Macro lens.

Litoria ewingii – f22 1/13 sec ISO 400

A small (1/2 inch) Orb Weaving Spider and its catch – f4.5 1/400 sec ISO 200

f11 1/25 ISO 200

Frog Utopia

Sue McB — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 01:26:44 +0000

This was a comment from my daughter when she saw some of these shots.

Along the veranda at the back of my home there is a row of Hydrangea macrophylla shrubs in which live dozens of Southern Brown Tree Frogs, or Litoria ewingii. These little creatures are very common in this area, sometimes seen in the garden, occasionally appearing on a glass door when it has been raining, but usually just heard calling at night as they hide by day. During the recent heavy rain and eternally damp weather they have appeared on the hydrangeas in the late afternoon, and sit, hoping to catch insects until mid morning the following day.

The ones in these photos were all very small, probably about 2 cms in size, and very quick to jump if the camera got too close. Taken at night, lighting was difficult and some shots have been enhanced a little with Photoshop Elements.

Macro lens f5.6 1/60

Canon Macro f5 1/60

This one seemed to have different markings and colours than the rest – obviously very green, and its back stripe seemed more red than brown.

Macro lens f5.6 1/60

Canon Macro lens f5.6 1/60

Canon Macro f.5.6 1/60

See the small green fly sitting on this one’s head above?

Canon Macro f5.6 1/60

Frogs Call at a Higher Pitch in Traffic Noise

Dr. Kirtland C. Peterson — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:17:40 +0000

Abstract

Male frogs call to attract females for mating and to defend territories from rival males. Female frogs of some species prefer lower-pitched calls, which indicate larger, more experienced males. Acoustic interference occurs when background noise reduces the active distance or the distance over which an acoustic signal can be detected.

Birds are known to call at a higher pitch or frequency in urban noise, decreasing acoustic interference from low-frequency noise. Using Bayesian linear regression, we investigated the effect of traffic noise on the pitch of advertisement calls in two species of frogs, the southern brown tree frog (Litoria ewingii) and the common eastern froglet (Crinia signifera).

We found evidence that L. ewingii calls at a higher pitch in traffic noise, with an average increase in dominant frequency of 4.1 Hz/dB of traffic noise, and a total effect size of 123 Hz. This frequency shift is smaller than that observed in birds, but is still large enough to be detected by conspecific frogs and confer a significant benefit to the caller. Mathematical modelling predicted a 24% increase in the active distance of a L. ewingii call in traffic noise with a frequency shift of this size.

Crinia signifera may also call at a higher pitch in traffic noise, but more data are required to be confident of this effect. Because frog calls are innate rather than learned, the frequency shift demonstrated by L. ewingii may represent an evolutionary adaptation to noisy conditions. The phenomenon of frogs calling at a higher pitch in traffic noise could therefore constitute an intriguing trade-off between audibility and attractiveness to potential mates.

Full article available at Ecology & Society…

Kirtland Peterson