Skip to main content

Peron's Tree Frog

Litoria peronii

Photo by LachlanHart
Published on Project Noah
Zoom
NominateNominate for Wildlife Photograph of the Month
reportFlag Spotting

-33.6708, 150.619

Field Notes

Description:

Peron's Tree Frog is one of the most varied coloured frogs in Australia, with the ability to change colour in less than one hour. It varies in shades of grey and brown, where its lightest is almost white. The frog has mottled yellow and black thighs, armpits and groin. Occasionally emerald spots are found on the back, which increase in number with age. A characteristic uncommon in the Litoria genus, is pupils which appear cross shaped. This characteristic is only shared with Tyler's Tree Frog within the Litoria genus. The male Peron tree frog is approximately 44-53 mm while Females are 46-65 mm.

Habitat:

The frog is found in forests, woodlands, shrub-lands and open areas, often far away from a water source. They inhabit a variety of niches, predominantly in arboreal situations, such as tree hollows, cracks and beneath the flaking bark. The frog is commonly found near civilisation (such as suburban Sydney), using ponds or dams as their breeding water source. It can often be seen on windows or near lights at night, as it hunts the insects attracted to these light sources. They can often be found at dusk on houseboat windows and beneath street lamps along the Murray River in South Australia.

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (4)

I've reconsidered after seeing so many variants of this frog from amongst everyones sightings and reading further on L. peronii. It seems that this frog is so adept at changing colour that it's lack of coloration when I encountered him does not identify him as tyleri rather than peronii. I'm now really keen to spot a L. tyleri to note the difference!
Thanks martinl, after your comment I realised that the cross pupil was the only useful distinguishing feature. I investigated this as I had already discounted peronii due to my frogs lack of any coloration both on the back and in the pits and groin. I found Litoria tyleri and I think we have a winner. The only three frogs I could find were peronii, tyleri and rothii. Tyler's Tree Frog is the only one that fits in both appearance and distribution. Cheers, Lachlan.
I believe that perons tree frog is the only one with the cross within the eyes http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/8061329. My pic has color saturation ruined the photo by exaggerating the green spots but the color is variable.
Photographed
PublishedFebruary 25, 2012

Accelerate our Mission to Photograph 
Every Species in the World!

Image
Butterflies icon

Wildlife Community

Wildlife Community

Join a worldwide community passionate about wildlife and nature!

Join Project Noah

Nature School

Nature School

Transform your green space into a curiosity-creating nature classroom!

Visit Nature School

Wildlife Game

Wildlife Game

Defend wildlife throughout the jungle in thrilling nature game!

Play Baboon