Agalychnis saltator Taylor, 1955 is a animal in the Phyllomedusidae family, order Anura, kingdom Animalia. Not known to be toxic.

Photo of Agalychnis saltator Taylor, 1955 (Agalychnis saltator Taylor, 1955)
🦋 Animalia

Agalychnis saltator Taylor, 1955

Agalychnis saltator Taylor, 1955

Agalychnis saltator, the parachuting frog, is a nocturnal arboreal tree frog with distinctive red eyes that breeds after heavy rains.

Genus
Agalychnis
Order
Anura
Class
Amphibia

About Agalychnis saltator Taylor, 1955

Male Agalychnis saltator measure 38–44 mm (1.5–1.7 in) in snout–vent length, while females measure 52–62 mm (2.0–2.4 in). This species has distinctive red eyes with vertical pupils. Their dorsum is either light or dark leaf green, and their flanks are bluish purple. They have large suction disks and extensive webbing between the fingers and toes. Agalychnis saltator is a nocturnal, arboreal species. It inhabits lowland and montane humid and wet forests, and to a lesser degree, adjacent premontane wet forests and rainforests. These frogs live in tree canopies, and descend to temporary pools to reproduce. Males can leap from considerable heights to plants at mating sites, extending their limbs and spreading the skin between their fingers and toes — this behaviour gives the species its common name "parachuting frog". Agalychnis saltator is an explosive breeder that breeds after heavy rains. A single breeding aggregation can contain 25 to 400 frogs, most commonly 100 to 200 individuals. Aggregations form on vines that overhang temporary forest ponds, and on marsh vegetation such as Spathiphyllum. Most individuals in a breeding aggregation are pairs in amplexus, with one female accompanied by one to four males. Eggs are laid among mosses growing on these vines, but eggs are very vulnerable to predation at this stage. Male Agalychnis saltator have also been observed in amplexus with female Agalychnis callidryas; any eggs produced from these pairings are infertile.

Photo: (c) jorge, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by jorge · cc-by-nc

Taxonomy

Animalia Chordata Amphibia Anura Phyllomedusidae Agalychnis

More from Phyllomedusidae

Sources: GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia, NCBI Taxonomy · Disclaimer

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