A Garter Staple - the Amazing Pacific Chorus Frog

[Steven@HumboldtHerps]

Yes, I know this is a garter forum, but I just wanted to give credit to all those wonderful little dudes who so often end up in the bellies of our slithery friends.

The Pacific Chorus Frog (Pseudachris regilla) [previously Pacific Tree frog {Hyla regilla}] mat be found throughout most of CA, OR, WA, NV, western ID and MT, as well as southern parts of BC, Canada and northern Baja in Mexico.
It is currently under proposed taxonomical revision (and may be separated into 3 distinct species).

In my neck of the woods these guys are everywhere, and their color schemes are incredible. I have raised them in captivity with about a 98% success rate.
My garters are very "happy" about this.

Anyways, just thought I'd like to share some of their colors with you...
http://www.humboldtherps.com/images/HCHSimage-Pacific_Treefrog_A_-_east_of_Trinidad_CA_04-01-2007.JPG

http://www.humboldtherps.com/images/HCHSimage-Pacific_Treefrog-Klamath_River_near_Aikens_Creek_Humboldt_County_04-29-2007.JPG

http://www.humboldtherps.com/images/HCHSimage-pacific_tree_frog-on_our_pack-east_boulder_lake-trinity_alps_-_08-02-2007.jpg

http://www.humboldtherps.com/images/04-26-2008HCHSimage-Pacific_Treefrog_4_-_mouth_of_Fern_Canyon.jpg

http://www.humboldtherps.com/images/05-12-2008HCHSimage-Pacific_Treefrog_1A_-Ryan_s_Slough_inland_behind_Redwood_Acres_.JPG

[Steven@HumboldtHerps]

http://www.humboldtherps.com/images/2008-06-19HCHSimage-Pseudacris_regilla-NE_banks_of_Mad_River_near_Hwy_299_Humboldt_County _.JPG

http://www.humboldtherps.com/images/2008-06-06HCHSimage-Pacific_Treefrog_rare_blue_morph_-HSU_Natural_History_Museum.JPG
P. regilla have 3 main color phases (there are likely others) that exist in any one given population: greens, browns, and intermediaries. The greens and browns usu. always keep their colors (may lighten somewhat, and appendages or laterals may take on coppery metallic hues at various light spectrums and temperatures. Intermediaries can change from green to brown, but rarely as dark a green or brown as the "non-changers". These 3 phases are a survival strategy that allows any one population to adapt to fluctuating environments (vegetation states, temp, etc). There might be less browns in a wet "green" year, or there might be less greens during a dry year...

In the case of the blue frog - P. regillas, which are green are so because white light bounces off of iridiophores (pigment cells), which is reflected as blue light; this light then goes through xanthophores (yellow pigment cells), which are at the surface of the skin, thus blue + yellow = green. Blue frogs have a recessive trait where the xanthophores don't work!


http://www.humboldtherps.com/images/20081207HCHSimage-Pacific_Chorus_Frog-Arcata_Marsh.JPG

http://www.humboldtherps.com/images/20090330HCHSimage-Pacific_Chorus_Frog_green_girl_01B_Campus_pond_Eur eka_CA.JPG

http://www.humboldtherps.com/images/20090418HCHSimage-P._regilla_GPS-COTRL-PSEREG-04_01A_.JPG

[Steven@HumboldtHerps]

http://www.humboldtherps.com/images/20090418HCHSimage-P._regilla_Coastal_Trail_.JPG

http://www.humboldtherps.com/images/20090429HCHSimage-P._regilla-_GPS-ELKPEN-PSEREG-POLY-01_03.JPG

http://www.humboldtherps.com/images/20090418HCHSimage-P._regilla_GPS-COTRL-PSEREG-05_.JPG

[ssssnakeluvr]

awesome photos!! I used to catch them all the time where I grew up. there's a very tiny spot in Utah where they are also....some pond on some hillside in the middle of the desert....so the DWR people won't let ya keep them here as pets.... neat little froggies tho!!!

[guidofatherof5]

Great looking photos.
Seeing them and knowing their relationship to the garter populations is "food for thought" To the garters, they would be "thought for food":D

[charles parenteau]

Just awesome!!!Your pictures show their real color its crazy how beautiful they are!!!

[drache]

those are very cool frogs - amazing variety
when you say "success in raising" what exactly do you mean?
do you breed the parents, or do you collect spawn or tadpoles and raise them?

[ConcinusMan]

I actually for a while (after my concinnus pair died) kept one male and several females together (that frog) in a tall clear cylinder with live climbing plants and an inch or two of water in the bottom. They did quite well, feeding on flies and worms. After about 2 years, I was blessed with a gelatinous glob of eggs. Yippy! They're pretty cool. I like them, and the eggs/tadpoles are very easy to rear. Very abundant in my area. Usually green, brown, or a combo. Of course, when my snakes were still alive, I collected those frogs as food. I released my frog captives when I finally just couldn't take that male waking me up with his croaking!

I've never seen a blue one, are you sure that's not a hoax??! That's amazing. of course, when I first moved to San Diego some years ago, I was shocked. I found those frogs in seasonal streams at canyon bottoms and found them in weird colors. Bright orange, (with or without green spots) metallic gold, metallic bronze. Those were so unusual, but blue? Wow! I want a pair. Get me some blue ones!

[jitami]

Great pics! Add me to the list of those who used to catch these by the hundreds growing up. Lived near a pond where they were quite prolific. Just love the cute little guys :)

[Steven@HumboldtHerps]

those are very cool frogs - amazing variety
when you say "success in raising" what exactly do you mean?
do you breed the parents, or do you collect spawn or tadpoles and raise them?

I have done both. They are quite easy once you have a good set-up. I feed the frogs flies, fruit flies (from the compost!), crickets, waxworms, and small earthworms. The tadpoles need a constant supply of algae, but will graze on algae wafers. I keep my tank outside in part sun/part shade. Tadpoles will often bask in the shallows where the water is warmer. I always however have to monitor the temperature during the summer (I simply offer more shade if it's too warm). There is a 10 gal. tank filled with rocks and then soil substrate that I put inside the large tank; I also have floating cork and local aquatic plants. The tank is 3/5 water, 2/5 land.

[guidofatherof5]

I have done both. They are quite easy once you have a good set-up. I feed the frogs flies, fruit flies (from the compost!), crickets, waxworms, and small earthworms. The tadpoles need a constant supply of algae, but will graze on algae wafers. I keep my tank outside in part sun/part shade. Tadpoles will often bask in the shallows where the water is warmer. I always however have to monitor the temperature during the summer (I simply offer more shade if it's too warm). There is a 10 gal. tank filled with rocks and then soil substrate that I put inside the large tank; I also have floating cork and local aquatic plants. The tank is 3/5 water, 2/5 land.

Do you happen to have a photo of that set-up you could post?

[Steven@HumboldtHerps]

I've never seen a blue one, are you sure that's not a hoax??! That's amazing. of course, when I first moved to San Diego some years ago, I was shocked. I found those frogs in seasonal streams at canyon bottoms and found them in weird colors. Bright orange, (with or without green spots) metallic gold, metallic bronze. Those were so unusual, but blue? Wow! I want a pair. Get me some blue ones!

The blue ones are extremely rare, and I believe the trait is a simple recessive. This specimen was discovered within the city limits of Eureka and was donated to the Humboldt State University Natural History Museum. It's real! Good luck on finding one! Maybe one in a million? 1 in 500, 000? I don't know... rare.......

Oh, and bronzes or metallic colors are common... Not so often for the whole animal, but usually either dorsally or laterally (varies with the 2-color changers) and especially on the legs and forearms.

[ConcinusMan]

Not common at my locale. Not at all. That's why I found it surprising when I saw them in San Diego. Now I know how highly variable they can be, depending on their environment and other factors. For whatever reason, that locale in San Diego favored metallics and it was all or most of their bodies! Darn about the blue.

@ guido: I do have video somewhere, of the frogs eating. As soon as I find it, I'll post on youtube and share the link. I can't find a picture but the housing was plastic and converted (drilled holes in top, and sealed the bottom) from packaging that this toy came in: Doozy Fun Marionette : 40050852A523499A474 - Buy.com (http://www.buy.com/prod/doozy-fun-marionette/q/loc/20269/201120589.html)

[Steven@HumboldtHerps]

I'll post a pic of my set-up soon.

A note regarding Pseudacris regilla: The species is currently under revision. It may very well turn out that the current populations are composed of 3 "species."

Californiaherps has them listed as*:

Northern Pacific Chorus Frog (Pseudacris regilla) NW CA northwards
Sierran Chorus Frog (P. sierra) SC CA northwards/eastwards
Baja California Chorus Frog (P. hypochondriaca) SC CA southwards

Maybe the Baja frogs have a tendency for more over-all metallic colors; there's a certain reflectivity about these colors; makes sense if you live in a hotter and dryer climate!

*New common names listed as "treefrogs"..... Perhaps I'll send Gary Nafis an e-mail...

[Steven@HumboldtHerps]

This is the habitat I originally created for my chorus frogs and tadpoles. It currently houses 3 Northern Red-legs and one adult Northwestern Salamander.
I am in the process of setting up a new tank for the chorus frogs.

[ConcinusMan]

Neato setup^^^It was definitely dry where I found them.(metallics) The stream was only temporary, lasting just long enough in the spring to barely raise a few tadpoles before things dried up again. The only other amphibians in these canyons were western toads that spend most of the year estivating in burrows, and some CA slender salamanders which don't require standing water to reproduce. Those So. CA frogs tended to be very small too, when compared to NW frogs. Even after things dried up, if you wanted to go digging into the sides of the stream bed, you could find them sharing burrows with toads. NW tadpoles tend to have more time to grow, and so transform into frogs at a larger size. They can be found far from water though, and tend to have a more aborrial existance (near water they can be heard croaking high up in trees) than the So. CA ones.

You know something though? There was once an abondoned gravel pit here in Vanc. where all the frogs were colored to match the gravely-grey background of their environment. Fascinating.

[Steven@HumboldtHerps]

Here are few Pseudachris pics from last March and May. Yes, that ghost foot you see is a chorus frog molt! The fifth picture is a shot I took of my 3 Red-legs last year.

[ConcinusMan]

Kewl! I used to know a spot right here in Vanc. where you could practically walk across the (few inches of) water on their backs.(red-legged frogs) I mean, they were thick! Not coincidentally, Thamnophis sirtalis concinnus were also thick in that area. I even caught a yellow bellied racer in the same area. He had a proplapsed reproductive organ, making it easy to catch him. I amputated it and kept him through 2 sheds and released him.

[Steven@HumboldtHerps]

You know something though? There was once an abondoned gravel pit here in Vanc. where all the frogs were colored to match the gravely-grey background of their environment. Fascinating.

Color variability seems to be like one of Pseudachris' best survival strategies.

Check out:

Chicago Journals - The American Naturalist (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/378253?cookieSet=1&journalCode=an)

[ConcinusMan]

ah yes, I've read that. These "gravel" morphs I speak of could change color from very light gray with dark spots, to all dark, almost black. Temperature had a big influence.

In wetter, greener environments I've collected individuals that could turn from brown to dark olive-green.