Polypedates colletti

Collett’s Tree Frog

                                                                                       

Polypedates colletti is an elegant tree frog with a conspicuously acute snout. Most specimens have an hour-glass shaped figure on their backs. Coloration is usually shades of brown, but we have also seen more grayish individuals.

This frog is most often seen at a suitable breeding pond where adults perch in 1-2 m height on vegetation. For reproduction this species seems to prefer stagnant pools of water in the forest (uprooted trees, flooded depressions) with clear water and leaf litter bottom. Size of adults: up to 50 mm in males, 80 mm snout-vent length in females.

Tadpoles have a unique marbled pattern on head, trunk, and tail. The iris rim is red. The tail terminates in a thin flagellum. Tadpoles grow up to 33 mm total length.

We have seen tadpoles resting motionless on leaf litter or hovering in the water column of black-water ponds. They move slowly by beating their flagellum but can move rapidly when disturbed. During the day they hide under leaf litter.