| Agile Frog (Rana dalmatina (Fitzinger, 1838)) |
|
|
|
Scientific name: Rana dalmatina (Fitzinger, 1838) Common name: Agile Frog Other names: Leap Frog French name: Grenouille agile, Grenouille pisseuse Order: Anura Family: Ranidae Size: 6 to 9 cm. Females are larger then males. Habitat: Deciduous forests and smaller size woodlands, with small ponds bordered by vegetation. You can also find it in damp meadows. Food: Insects. Reproduction: Mating occurs between February and April. Females lay a clump of 450 to 1800 eggs under water. Tadpoles will grow during 2 months before metamorphosis and go out of water after 3 months. Geographic area: Southern Europe, north to southern Sweden. Missing in the Iberian Peninsula and in large areas inside its range. |
The Agile Frog got its common name from its ability to do very long jumps, up to two meters in distance. This is because it has very long hind legs. It is a member of the brown frogs with a dark brown eye patch. If you pull a hind leg towards the head, the heel will extend beyond the snout tip. This is here the most reliable key to tell this species apart. The body is flattened. It is a pale brown or pinkish colour with some sparse patches. The skin is smooth in appearance. The snout is pointy. The rather large tympanum is close to the eye. The iris is golden and light-coloured on the upper part and dark on the lower part. It is sometimes crossed by a black horizontal stripe. The dorsolateral folds are spaced and parallel. The under side of the body is almost uniformly coloured, without any marked patches. The Common Frog (Rana temporaria) has a more rounded snout and a more robust body. The tympanum is smaller and more distant from the eye. The upper parts and lower parts of the iris are the same colour. The dorsolateral folds are closer and converge at the rear. The under side of the body can show some dark mottling or patches. The Moor Frog (Rana arvalis) often shows darker marks forming wavy stripes and a pale longitudinal line in the middle of its back. There is also a possible confusion with other species with a much more limited range, the Iberian Frog (Rana iberica), the Italian Agile Frog (Rana latastei) and the Greek Stream Frog (Rana graeca). Male Agile Frogs hibernate in the mud under water while females hibernate under the ground, under logs or under the litter. |
| [To know more about the Agile Frog] [Next picture] [Top] |
|
It is not easy to see the Agile Frog among the litter of dead leaves. Without the sharp eyes of my friend Xavier, I would never have done this nice observation. |
| [To know more about the Agile Frog] [Next picture] [Previous picture] [Top] |
|
You can see the very long length of the hind legs on this side view. You need just to measure on the picture to confirm that, by pulling the hind leg forward, the heel will locate beyond the snout tip. This confirms the Agile Frog species! |
| [To know more about the Agile Frog] [Previous picture] [Top] |
|
The elongated snout, the iris which is golden and light-coloured on the upper side and dark on the lower side, clearly indicate the Agile Frog species. |
André Bon September 2013