Frog ID (tiny green frogs)

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addelinaperry

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Hi I am a veterinary nurse and my work was handed in 10 surrendered tadpoles. They were quite large and brownish, I kept them really warm in a tank and they underwent metamorphosis in only 1 or 2 weeks!
I am unsure what they are now possibly some type of tree frog and even some of the vets are unsure.
 

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Maybe a blue mountains tree frog? The tadpoles are brown with translucent fins? Where are you located?
 
I'm in Liverpool nsw so maybe. I think i have photos of the tadpoles if I can find them. Thank you
 
Without a better picture I would lean towards them being litoria caerulea, 80-90% of metamorphs will retain an eye stripe which they lose within around 8 weeks of emerging from the water.a40m37.jpg
 
Thank you for the replies :) I really think they are litoria cerelea as they have begun emerging from the water and feeding on insects. They're starting to look and behave like my adult litoria cerelea.
 
Without a better picture I would lean towards them being litoria caerulea, 80-90% of metamorphs will retain an eye stripe which they lose within around 8 weeks of emerging from the water.View attachment 333223
I had no idea that’s what they looked like as babies. One of mine has a lingering line infront of its eye which sort of looks like eyeliner. (They’re currently referred to as eyeliner frog.)
I wish you luck Addelina with either keeping or rehoming them. They’re wonderful frogs.
 

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Looking at the black bands towards the face and the slight reddish colouration on the side of the legs, alongside the green body, I believe that Herpetology’s guess is correct and that they are Green Stream Frogs (Litoria phyllochroa).7F39B807-483D-422F-ABE8-47ACD402CA9C.jpeg
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You are correct that they are tree frogs, indicated by expanded discs at the end of their digits. Hence, they belong to the genus Litoria (which some taxonomists now call Ranoidea). As was alluded to by Ryan-James, metamorphosing frogs can take a little time to attain adult colouration. This often make it difficult to correctly ID them at this stage. Secondly, given the circumstances, you may have more than one species present.

With Litoria, apart from general colour and markings, important distinguishing features can include the colour of the armpit/shoulder, groin and thighs, whether the tympanum is readily visible or indistinct and what colour it is, the colour of the iris, whether the skin is granular or smooth on the on back and on the belly, and the degree of webbing of the feet. Your frogs would now be fully coloured and able to be more readily identified - it would be interesting to know what they turned out to be.

Based on what I can see here, I tend to agree with Ryan-James and yourself, addelinaperry, that they are most likely L. caerulea. The larger metamorphs seem to lack the dark face stripe. In those two photos where it is present, it starts at the nostrils and does not seem to extend past the arm in at least one, which is consistent with juvenile L. caerulea. The less clear individual appears to lack the gold line from the eye backwards, which is characteristic of Stream Frogs (L. phyllochroa). Adults of this latter species are dark red on the armpits, groin and backs of the thighs, on contrast to L. caerulea where these areas are green.

 

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