Small-headed Treefrog

• Its choruses are among the densest in the Neotropics: hundreds of males calling at once from the vegetation over a pool make a noise that makes conversation difficult a few metres away.
• The males time their calls so as not to overlap with their neighbour, alternating within microseconds so that each is audible separately to the females.
• It is one of the most abundant frogs in the ditches and pools of tropical America, and it benefits from the waterlogged areas created by roads and clearance.
• Males call in very large choruses and synchronise their calls: they alternate and overlap following precise rules, so that their call is not masked by the neighbour's.
• That acoustic competition is a classic model for the study of animal communication in noisy environments.
• It is tiny, about three centimetres long, and pale yellow with brown lines that camouflage it against dry grass.
• It breeds in temporary pools and its tadpoles develop quickly before the water disappears.
• It is abundant and tolerant of disturbed environments, which makes it common in roadside ditches and field margins.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (amphibian)

Habitat and environment

Vegetation over pools, ditches and wetlands of tropical America

Sexual maturity

10 months

Gestation / incubation

Larval development in pools and flooded ground

Litter / clutch size

200 eggs

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Dendropsophus microcephalus