About Litoria quiritatus Rowley, Mahony, Hines, Myers, Price, Shea & Donnellan, 2021
The screaming tree frog, scientifically named Litoria quiritatus, is a frog species that belongs to the subfamily Pelodryadinae. This species is endemic to southeastern Australia, occurring east of the Great Dividing Range. Its distribution extends from Mallacoota in northeastern Victoria north to Taree on the mid-coast of New South Wales. It is the "bleating tree frog" found around Sydney, and is widely recognized for its extremely loud call. Litoria quiritatus was long confused with the robust bleating tree frog, Litoria dentata. Because of this confusion, it was only formally described in 2021, even though it is a relatively common species found near major population centers. In their 2021 publication, Rowley et al. split what was previously considered a single species, Litoria dentata, into three distinct clades based on genetic divergence, small morphological differences, and clear differences in vocalizations. Vocalization data for this work was collected through the FrogID Australia citizen science project. The three clades were named as the robust bleating tree frog (L. dentata sensu stricto), the slender bleating tree frog (L. balatus), and the screaming tree frog (L. quiritatus). Compared to the other two species, the screaming tree frog produces the longest call. It does not have a white line running along its side, and breeding-season males turn yellow. The vocal sac of male screaming tree frogs is permanently yellow, while only the vocal sac is yellow outside of breeding season. All three species have separate geographical ranges, and the screaming tree frog has the southernmost range of the three.
