About Boana prasina (Burmeister, 1856)
Boana prasina is a medium-sized frog that reaches 4 to 5 centimeters in length. It is most commonly light brown with scattered dark spots across its back, though individuals may also be brown, yellow, or green. Its belly is a lighter shade than its back. It is commonly called the rattle-voiced tree frog, named for its call which follows a rattle-like rhythm. These frogs typically croak from low vegetation at the edge of water, and they have recently been observed living in artificial garden lakes and lawns. The species is generally nocturnal, and individuals sometimes become active at dusk. B. prasina is restricted to the elevated regions of southeastern Brazil, but occupies a wide range of habitat types including lakes, ponds, fields, pastures, muddy soils, and forests. Individuals can be found either on the ground or in trees. In forested areas, it most often inhabits open spaces or forest edges; these forests are always located very close to water, and are either riparian or gallery forests. A study of tadpole populations across 25 Atlantic Forest breeding sites in southern Brazil found only two groups of B. prasina tadpoles, each containing around 70 individuals. While the 25 observed breeding sites were evenly split between ponds and streams, B. prasina tadpoles were only found living in streams. B. prasina does not appear to exhibit territorial behavior. Male rivalry, a common component of sexual selection in other frog species, is much less prominent in this species. One study proposed that the calling behavior of male B. prasina acts as an honest signal of an individual male's health: the study found that males with lower parasite intensity had higher calling rates.
