you are walking through the high-altitude cloud forest of Costa Rica on a Friday morning, as you do. you trample through the underbrush,
heedless of your surroundings. suddenly, you stop. you feel… watched.
and judged. definitely judged.
you turn to run, but it is too late! you are surrounded by the alien stare of the Ghost Glass Frog. it’s curtains for you now, buddy.
oh no! aaaaaaagh. aaaaaagh!
the Ghost Glass Frog, which looks cross between Kermit and Hypno Frog, is a small and weirdly adorable meme creature found across southern Central America. they live in trees, surviving on a diet of insects and are harmless to humans. (though they may hop onto your face and chirp a bunch)
maybe don’t stare into these for too long, though
like all species of Glass Frog, the Ghost Glass Frog is a master of stealth. their bright green skin makes them nearly invisible against the leaves.
but the eyes do kind of give them away
though their true weirdness, and their namesake, lies… *editor’s note: pause for dramatic effect* BELOW.
their underbellies are almost completely transparent, giving us a perfect view of their guts for God only knows what reason.
*editor’s note: write something clever here when we stop rolling on the floor making disgusted noises*
maybe they thought a bird’s-eye view of their spleen would give most predators pause. (they were absolutely correct ew ew ew)
you wanna know what else is transparent? my ability to give a fuck
Ghost Glass Frogs lay their transparent eggs (which contain their transparent children) on the edges of leaves that overhang fast-flowing streams. one or both parents stick around to protect the eggs, which is roughly equivalent of a human giving their kids a free ride through college. pretty impressive parenting for an amphibian.
away from my children or I’ll show you my weird frog spleen, evildoer!
when the tadpoles hatch, they drop into the water and are off to have adventures and show
their internal organs to complete strangers on a fairly regular basis. in a few months they gain legs and a froggy outlook on life, at which point they hop out of the water to complete the cycle.
the frog cycle, the only cycle that matters
we’ll leave these fantastic critters for now, but a few final words:
when you walk through the forest, remember to say hi to the meme frog.
Hello! 🐸 Because dinner! If you are a White’s Tree Frog, everything that moves is dinner until proven otherwise (sometimes several checks are needed!)
Attack-of-the-Determined-Voigt does not hurt, but it is rather squishy and sometimes comes with free slobber! 🐸
Frogs don’t have the best eyesight, and their impulse to strike is triggered by movement, especially in larger frogs with bigger mouths. If something is moving and it isn’t Scary, it’s food! Except when it’s too big to fit in their mouths, but even then it’s still worth a try. Or five tries.
My frog Millie just gets more and more aggressive. I have to hand feed both frogs, and while Liberace will delicately accept crickets from my hand, Millie launches herself at anything that moves. She swallowed my whole finger last night and would not let go, so I had to run around the room chasing an escaped cricket while she dangled off my hand and furiously attempted to swallow my entire arm. Horrible! Horrible frog!
hello have you ever, just been, really bothering a small amphibian all over, and they decide they have had enough of it
the unken reflex is a defensive posture that a handful of salamanders, toads and frogs do when they feel threatened, and it involves curling right up and showing off their bright underbellies ( which usually, BUT NOT ALWAYS, means the animal in question is POISONOUS and you shouldnt eat this thing !!! dont eat this !!!!! )
the above three are rough skinned newts and a california newt, but the reflex itself is named after the fire-belled toads ( whose genus is unke in german ) where it shows up a little differently
(note the covered eyes ! )
while displaying, the animal in question gulps down a bunch of air, makes themselves as still as possible, and also releases toxins from their skin if they got em – but not all amphibians with the unken reflex have poison, and some of the poison ones dont have bright underbellies, and some dont curl up all the way while theyre doing it – its a mixed bag of postures. thats how it is sometimes
The Turtle frog (Myobatrachus gouldii) looks like a turtle that lost its shell 🙂
I think I’ll have to stop for now (I could go on for quite a while: Colourful frogs! Poisonous frogs! Shovel-nosed frogs! Striped frogs! Aquatic frogs! Burrowing frogs! Tiny frogs! Giant frogs! Frogs frogs frogs frogs frogs!).
Don’t forget to take a look at the last post about the most bad-ass of all frogs: the Hairy or Horror frog (Trichobatrachus robustus), also known as the Wolverine of the amphibian world 🙂
These are the kind of snouts legends are made of- the profound protrusions of the duck-bill hylid frog [also known as the Mexican shovel-headed tree frog; Diaglena spatulata; synonymous with
Triprion spatulatus]. So what are their “bills” used for? The verdict’s still out, but it these frogs have been sighted on multiple occasions backing into holes in trees to hide, and using their heads to “plug” the entrance and conceal themselves- proving useful in this application at least. These frogs can be found from the Pacific coast of Mexico to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca. They’re listed as “least concern” on the IUCN Red List. Images by Jorge Armín Escalante Pasos and Cheryl Harleston of iNaturalist.org.
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