| Spencer's burrowing frog | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Order: | Anura |
| Family: | Limnodynastidae |
| Genus: | Platyplectrum |
| Species: | P. spenceri |
| Binomial name | |
| Platyplectrum spenceri (Parker, 1940) | |
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| Synonyms | |
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Spencer's burrowing frog (Platyplectrum spenceri) is a species of frog native to western and central Australia.
Spencer's burrowing frog is very similar in appearance to the ornate burrowing frog (Platyplectrum ornatus). Both it and P. ornatus were moved to the genus Opisthodon in 2006, following a major revision of amphibians, and are now classified in the genus Platyplectrum. Previously, P. spenceri was classified in the genus Limnodynastes . [1]
Spencer's burrowing frog is a short, rotund frog with a small head and large eyes. The colour and patterns of the dorsal surface vary greatly. The colour ranges from a dark brown to light grey, with darker blotches. A butterfly shaped, darker patch is often found behind the eyes. The legs and arms are striped or spotted, the tympanum is not visible, and the feet range from partially to fully webbed. The absence of webbing between the toes allows for easier burrowing.
Spencer's burrowing frog is a fossorial frog native to the deserts of western and central Australia. During dry periods, the frog burrows underground to avoid desiccation. After a period of heavy rain, they emerge from the ground to feed and mate, laying their eggs in temporary pools of water. Tadpole development may be as short as 60 days because there is a danger that the water could dry up before the tadpoles have morphed.
Spencer's burrowing frog inhabits sandy creeks and rivers. The males will call near a water source with a rapidly repeated "hoh-hoh-hoh". Eggs are laid in foam, which breaks down in a day and releases the eggs into a layer on the top of the water.
Limnodynastes dumerilii is a frog species from the family Limnodynastidae. The informal names for the species and its subspecies include eastern or southern banjo frog, and bull frog. The frog is also called the pobblebonk after its distinctive "bonk" call, which is likened to a banjo string being plucked. There are five subspecies of L. dumerilii, each with different skin coloration. The species is native to eastern Australia. There has been one occurrence in New Zealand, when tadpoles of the species were found in 1999 and destroyed.
Limnodynastes is a genus of frog native to Australia, southern New Guinea and some Torres Strait Islands. They are ground-dwelling frogs, with no toe pads. The size varies from 45 mm to 90 mm in the giant banjo frog. The webbing on the feet ranges between species, from very little, to almost complete. The tympanum is not visible in any species, except in the woodworker frog, which is sometimes classed in a separate genus Megistolotis. All species construct a foam nest in which the eggs are laid. However, in south-eastern South Australia female striped marsh frog and spotted grass frog lack the flanges of skin on the hands that helps trap the air bubble and do not construct foam nests.
The spotted grass frog or spotted marsh frog is a terrestrial frog native to Australia. It is distributed throughout all of New South Wales and Victoria, eastern South Australia, the majority of Queensland, and eastern Tasmania. It is also naturalised in Western Australia, having been unintentionally introduced at Kununurra in the 1970s, apparently during the relocation of several hundred transportable homes from Adelaide.
The striped marsh frog or brown-striped frog is a predominantly aquatic frog native to coastal Eastern Australia. It is a common species in urban habitats.
The gastric-brooding frogs or platypus frogs (Rheobatrachus) is a genus of extinct ground-dwelling frogs native to Queensland in eastern Australia. The genus consisted of only two species, both of which became extinct in the mid-1980s. The genus is unique because it contains the only two known frog species that incubated the prejuvenile stages of their offspring in the stomach of the mother.
Fletcher's frog or sandpaper frog is a species of ground frog native to eastern Australia from South-east QLD to Ourimbah, NSW. It inhabits rainforest and wet sclerophyll forest of the coast and ranges.
Myobatrachidae, commonly known as Australian ground frogs or Australian water frogs, is a family of frogs found in Australia and New Guinea. Members of this family vary greatly in size, from species less than 1.5 cm (0.59 in) long, to the second-largest frog in Australia, the giant barred frog, at 12 cm (4.7 in) in length. The entire family is either terrestrial or aquatic frogs, with no arboreal species.
The ornate burrowing frog is a species of ground frog native to Australia. It was moved to the genus Opisthodon in 2006, following a major revision of amphibians, and is now classified in the genus Platyplectrum.
The northern sandhill frog is a small, fossorial frog native to a small region of the Western Australian coast. It was formerly considered the sole species within the genus Arenophryne until the first decade of the 2000s, when a new species of frog called the southern sandhill frog was discovered about 100 kilometres from Geraldton, Western Australia in Kalbarri National Park and given the scientific name Arenophryne xiphorhyncha.
Amphibians of Australia are limited to members of the order Anura, commonly known as frogs. All Australian frogs are in the suborder Neobatrachia, also known as the modern frogs, which make up the largest proportion of extant frog species. About 230 of the 5,280 species of frog are native to Australia with 93% of them endemic. Compared with other continents, species diversity is low, and may be related to the climate of most of the Australian continent. There are two known invasive amphibians, the cane toad and the smooth newt.
The Sudell's frog, painted burrowing frog, trilling frog or desert trilling frog is a species of burrowing frog common to a large part of southeastern Australia. It is found on and west of the Great Dividing Range of New South Wales to western Victoria and southern Queensland as well as far eastern South Australia.
The Northern banjo frog is a species of ground-dwelling burrowing frogs native to eastern Queensland and northeastern New South Wales, Australia.
The short-footed frog is a small, burrowing frog native to eastern Queensland, Australia.
Ranoidea verrucosa is an amphibian native to northern New South Wales and south-eastern Queensland, Australia. It is also classified under the genus of Cyclorana and Litoria and also known as the warty water-holding frog.
The long-thumbed frog, Fletcher's frog or barking marsh frog is a species of non-burrowing ground frog native to south-eastern Australia. The species belongs to the genus Limnodynastes. The twelve species in the genus are characterised by a lack of toe pads. Following phylogenetic analysis, the species was placed in L. peronii clade group alongside L. depressus, L.tasmaniensis and L. peronii.
Ranoidea vagitus, the wailing frog, is a tree frog occupying the arid and monsoonal Kimberley region. It is a ground dweller, which evades dry periods by burrowing and hibernating - emerging to breed during floods.
The western banjo frog is a species of frog from the family Limnodynastidae. The informal names for this species are pobblebonk, sand frog and bullfrog. It is one of the endemic amphibians of Western Australia.
Burrowing frog may refer to several fossorial frog species:
Platyplectrum is a genus of ground-dwelling frog in the family Limnodynastidae. Species in this genus are found in Australia, New Guinea, and on the Aru Islands. They are medium-sized frogs and the dorsal skin has a sandpaper-like texture.
