Microhyla nepenthicola adult, tadpoles, habitat, and a bonus dragon snake.

[Radar]

Dragon snake and Asia's smallest frog.

These were taken by my partner while we were in Borneo a few weeks ago, figured a few people may be interested.
Microhyla nepenthicola is a highly specialized microhylid frog that has evolved to live out it's life in and around the pitchers of Nepenthes ampullaria. They lay eggs inside the ampullaria pitchers (which have actually evolved to catch leaf litter in this species, not small animals, but that's another story....), the tadpoles develop inside, and the adult males display and compete nearby for females that they mate inside the pitchers. The 'Dragon snake' or Rough backed litter snake (Xenodermus javanicus, google it for amazing photos, it's an incredible species) is a frog specialist that is usually (always?) found within 10 meters of water, on or under the leaf litter - and here it is waiting for its dinner. The dragonsnake itself is generally considered rare, and finding one curled up around an ampullaria colony (I'm a nepenthes nut) that contained the tadpoles of Asia's smallest frog made my night (possibly even week, but we did find some pretty cool stuff every other night.....).

Dragonsnake amongst pitchers:


M. nepenthicola male - we found two and heard but couldn't locate another within the same 20cm square patch of leaf litter.


Second male, beside a $2 coin for size reference.


1 of 3 tadpoles, about 2mm long, in this ampullaria pitcher.

 

[solar 17]

Great post/thread ~solar 17~

 

[Radar]

Cheers mate.

 

[Klaery]

Fantastic story and images Radar. From a fellow Nepenthes nut I wonder if there is in fact a symbiotic relationship there and housing tadpoles is of benefit to the plant? Are the nutrients easier for the plant to access (or for the bacteria to break down further so the plant can access them) once they have been through a tadpole?

 

[Stuart]

That's pretty awesome. Shows a great dedication to get down close to the ground and search for these guys. The Dragon snake looks like an awesome find too

 

[richoman_3]

Hell to the yes! bloody amazing finds
hahahaha i so agree with the title naming, the good threads on here get no attention!

 

[Radar]

Undoubtedly a bit of mechanical 'agitation' and shredding, plus the waste from the tadpoles, would be of some benefit to the plants. I would presume (and that's all it is, just a guess) that the frogs would have made use of a convenient, self-filling, rarely drying puddle of reasonably clean water in the first instance, with any benefit to the plants being purely coincidental. The ampullaria seem to do a fantastic job of catching falling junk....

We pushed through the jungle in the same area for a bit and found a few more amp vines reasonably equally spaced out (about one every 40-50 metres), another one had a basal cluster with a few tadpoles. We were looking for the tadpoles specifically, but didn't expect the adult males or the dragonsnake.

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That's pretty awesome. Shows a great dedication to get down close to the ground and search for these guys. The Dragon snake looks like an awesome find too

We play in dirt. That's our thing

 

[jedi_339]

You weren't wrong, it was right up my alley. Wicked finds!Though to be fair the picture of the tadpoles doesn't work for me.Looking forward to seeing your other pictures when you get round to it too.

Edit: the picture now works

 

[Radar]

You weren't wrong, it was right up my alley. Wicked finds!Though to be fair the picture of the tadpoles doesn't work for me.Looking forward to seeing your other pictures when you get round to it too.

Edit: the picture now works

Ah ok, was gonna say doesn't work as in the pic is broken, or as in it's a rubbish pic? lol. That particular picture isn't the best, but it was stupid conditions to be doing any photography under, let alone trying to take a photo, at night, of a 2mm long underwater subject, grey in colour, from directly above while it's constantly moving around inside a narrow tube filled with offcolour water, lol.

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I should mention we found the tadpoles one night, and it took another 10 nights search to locate the adults.

 

[Vikingtimbo]

Fascinating topic! I shouldn't be surprised to come across fellow Nep enthusiasts on this forum, I suppose predators of all kinds have a fascination for many people, whether plant or animal.

You're probably right, the tadpoles might help to digest the organic material that falls into the pitchers. N. rajah and other species are suspected of having evolved to "catch" mammal poop. And there are some great symbiotic relationships in the Nepenthes genus, like the hollow tendrils of N. bicalcarata that house colonies of a species of ant which protect the plant from pests.

Must've been an awesome trip for both herps and neps!!

 

[Bushman]

Great finds Radar! I've herped a fair bit in Asia and never found a Xenodermus javanicus or a Microhyla nepenthicola. To find both in one go is tremendous! Congratulations. 8)
Did you find them on or near Mount Serapi in Kubah National Park or somewhere else nearby? If you found them elsewhere you should report the find.
Well done and thanks for sharing.
P.S - take better pics next time.

 

[caliherp]

Incredible finds. Xenodermus javanicus has been on my want list for a couple years now. The only think keeping me from getting one is how difficult they are to keep alive for any length of time.

I agree with bushman better pictures next time. I would not have been able to leeve that snake without taking quite a few good pictures.

I love the pitcher plants. Thank you for sharing and great finds.

 

[Pilbarensis]

Incredible what diversity the island jungles of Indonesia and surrounding lands contain.

 

[Radar]

I've been out of reception at work for about 10 days.
Bushman, these were found elsewhere, but are known from the area as they have already been studied there.
I wish we could have got some better pics, but unfortunately that was the only pic of the snake before it disapeared into the clump of basal pitchers and through into the leaf litter below them. We were being very careful of not stepping on any small frogs or pitchers while moving into the area, and the snake would have known we were coming. It was about the size of standard pencil, maybe a touch longer, and made short work of losing itself in the extremely deep leaf litter. As much as I would have loved to have a play with it, I wasn't about to rip up the base of a massive (<20m long) vine and destroy the frogs breeding pools for the chance.

If you want to see it in high resolution, get of your backside and go find it yourself

 

[Bushman]

Good to hear that Microhyla nepenthicola are more widespread than previously thought. It sounds like there's no need to register your finds, although there's probably someone out there studying them that would like to hear your observations. Any data about such a relatively rare creature can only help.

You did well to even get a photo by the sounds of it and good on you for not damaging habitat in the pursuit of a capture, better pics or a fondle.

Happy herping