Several nights ago I heard a frog call out twice. It was close to the house, or on the outside wall of the house most likely. It sounded similar to a Person's Tree Frog but it was noticeably different. I got up to get my sound recorder but it didn't call again. I looked around and couldn't find the frog either.
The following night I was walking past the wall where I thought the frog was the previous night and I saw it briefly before it snuck up between some of the boards on the house. It looked a bit like a Peron's Tree Frog but it was a more consistent colour over it's body and it was much lighter.
Last night I saw the frog again and this time I was able to get some photos. I am extremely pleased to say that it is a Roth's Tree Frog. This is a new species for my Coles Creek property. I didn't think I would get them here as this area is about the southern most point of their range. This now takes the number of species that I have identified at my property to 27 and 20 of these species have been photographed for this blog this year. I am extremely lucky to have 27 species on a 45 acre block!!!
This is one of the four or more Green Tree Frogs that can usually be seen on the small veranda most nights of Summer.
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| Green Tree Frog |
All of the photos below are of the same Roth's Tree Frog. I'm fairly certain that there are two of them and possibly even three.
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| Roth's Tree Frog |
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| Roth's Tree Frog from above |
At my property I get the two other species that look and sound quite similar to this species. People can have difficulties in identifying the differences between Roth's Tree Frogs, Tyler's Tree Frogs and Peron's Tree Frog's. All of these can be seen on this blog. The colours of these frogs can change quite significantly from area to area, from day to night and even vary within the same area. I find that the Peron's Tree Frogs on my property, and generally in this area have splotches of darker colour through their skin colour as well as having numerous tiny green flecks over their body. This is not always the case though!! The eyes of Tyler's Tree Frogs and Peron's Tree Frogs have the cross shape pattern and the iris is a silver colour and has tiny black lines over it. Roth's Tree Frogs have a silver colour on the lower half of the iris and a red colour on the upper half of the iris. This is the most distinguishing feature of the Roth's Tree Frog along with the colouring on the inside of the legs and thighs.
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| The upper half of the iris is red and the lower half is silver with Roth's Tree Frogs |
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| Roth's Tree Frog |
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| The inside of the legs can be black to a bluish purple |
You can see the colour on the inside of the legs in the photos below. Tyler's Tree Frogs, Peron's Tree Frogs and Roth's Tree Frogs all have black and yellow on the thighs and inside the legs, toes etc. The main differences are that with Tyler's Tree Frog's the majority of the colour in this area is yellow with some black or dark coloured spots. With Peron's Tree Frogs the background colour is yellow and black is marbled over the areas and is in fairly equal proportions with the yellow. With Roth's Tree Frogs the black or bluish purple is more predominant with larger, regular shaped yellow patches.
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| A Roth's Tree Frog showing flashes of colour |
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| The leg markings are more vibrant than the body markings below |
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| The body markings are less vibrant than the leg markings above |
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| The Roth's Tree Frog on the wall of the house |
More pics and updates when more frogs are photographed and recorded.
