|
Litoria chloris, also commonly known as the Red-eyed Tree Frog, is a species of tree frog native to eastern Australia; ranging from north of Sydney to Proserpine in mid-northern Queensland.
The Red-eyed Tree Frog is a uniform bright green above and bright yellow on the underside. The front side of the arms and legs are green, while the underside is yellow or white. The thighs may be blue/purple to blue/black in colour in adults. It has golden eyes at the centre, which change to red towards the edge of the eye. The intensity of the eye colour is variable between frogs. The tympanum is visible and a mature frog reaches a size of 65 millimetres.
In rare cases this frog may have a series of randomly placed yellow dots on its back. The tadpoles are generally grey or brown, and can have gold pigment along the side. A similar species, the Orange-thighed Frog (Litoria xantheroma) is found north of Proserpine and has orange on the back of the thighs.
This species of frog is associated with rainforest, wet sclerophyll forest and woodland. The call is several long, moaning "aaa-rk", followed by soft trills. Males call and breeding takes place mostly after rain in temporary ponds, roadside ditches, dams, ponds and creek offshoots were the water is not flowing.
The skin secretions of the red-eyed tree frog have been found to destroy the HIV (the virus that causes AIDS), without harming healthy T-cells. The peptides which destroy HIV are the same as those of White's Tree Frog, but the Red-eyed Tree Frog produces it in larger quantites. Wikipedia |
|
|
