Jamaican laughing frog

The Jamaican laughing frog (Osteopilus ocellatus) is a species of frog in the family Hylidae. It is endemic to Jamaica.[3] Other common names include Savanna-la-Mar treefrog.[1]

Jamaican laughing frog
Illustration
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Hylidae
Genus: Osteopilus
Species:
O. ocellatus
Binomial name
Osteopilus ocellatus
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
  • Hyla brunnea[1]
  • Osteopilus brunneus[2]
  • Rana ocellata[1]
  • Trachycephalus scutigerus[1]

This is a common species in most parts of Jamaica, where it occurs in a variety of habitat types, including developed but rural areas.

It is associated with bromeliads as It sometimes lays its eggs inside these plants and the tadpoles develop there.[3] It does this in regions of Jamaica where the porous limestone substrate prevents reliable above-ground water storage. On other parts of the island the frog will brood in streams or pools of water.[4]

Taxonomic studies determined that the binomial names Rana ocellata and Osteopilus brunneus belong to this species as synonyms, and distinguished this taxon from the mainly South American species Leptodactylus latrans.[2]

References
  1. Osteopilus ocellatus. Amphibian Species of the World 6.0. American Museum of Natural History.
  2. Lavilla, E. O., et al. 2010. The identification of Rana ocellata Linnaeus, 1758. Nomenclatural impact on the species currently known as Leptodactylus ocellatus (Leptodactylidae) and Osteopilus brunneus (Goss, 1851) (Hylidae). Zootaxa 2346: 1-16.
  3. IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group. 2014. Osteopilus ocellatus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2014. Downloaded on 21 January 2018.
  4. "AMPHIBIAN CHECKLIST Class Amphibia Order Anura (aka Frogs & Toads)". Windsor Research Centre. 7 April 2016. Retrieved 28 April 2019.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.