NEWS107
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TheCarolinaTreeFrogcrawlsandclimbs rather thanhopping.
Literatur:
Reed,C.F. (1958):Hylacinerea inMaryland,
Delaware,andVirginia,withnoteson the ta-
xonomic statusofHylacinereaevittata.Jour-
nal of theWashingtonAcademyof Sciences
46 (10):328-332
Hyla cinerea evittata
supposedly lacking
the typical lateral stripeandhavingamore
massivehead.ButReed (1958)showed that
thesedifferencesoccureverywhereaspart
of theoverall variabilityof the speciesand
don't qualify as a criterion of specific or
subspecificstatus.Hencenowadays it isas-
sumed that theCarolinaTreeFrogdoesn't
includeany subspecies.
Maleand femalearedifficult todistinguish
externally.Malespossessavocalbladder in
the throatandgrow toonlyaround3.2cm
long, while females achieve double the
lengthat6.4cm long.Unfortunately,howe-
ver,femalesareonlyvery rarelyseen in the
trade.This isbecausemales form largecal-
ling assemblies of several hundred indivi-
duals and areparticularly fondof congre-
gating in expanses of floating
Eichhornia
,
where theyareveryeasy tocatch.Because
the femalesapproach themalesonlywhen
they are ready to spawn, and then retire
back into the local scrub,theymainlyelude
thecollectors.Thespawningseasonof the
Carolina Tree Frog is fromMarch to Oct-
ober in the southernpart of its range,and
fromApril to September in thenorth.The
call of the male sounds rather like a
cowbell from a distance, but close to is
more reminiscentof thecacklingofgeese.
Thespecies isvery fertileanda femalecan
spawn several times during a single sea-
son.The sizeof the clutch is extremelyva-
riable and fluctuates between 700 and
2150eggsonaverage (minimum478,ma-
ximum 3946), depending onprovenance
andprobablyalso thesizeandconditionof
the female.Onhatching the tadpolesmea-
surearound4.5 -5.5mm longandgrow to
around6cmbeforemetamorphosis,requi-
ring28 to44days todo so.
In the terrarium
Hylacinerea
isveryadaptableandassocia-
tedwithhuman settlement.Themost im-
portant ecological requirement posedby
thespecies is theavailabilityofpermanent
waterswithas lowa fishpopulationaspos-
sible (as fishes eat tadpoles) and awealth
of vegetation.Themales call from slightly
elevated calling sites between 30 and 50
cmabove thewater'ssurface.Being typical
tree frogs,CarolinaTree Frogs hardly ever
jump, but instead climb andwalk around.
All thiscaneasilybe reproduced in the ter-
rarium.Thus the terrarium for
Hylacinerea
should be set up as amoist terrarium or
even an aqua-terrarium,with a large,well
filteredwaterareaandabundantplanting.
Theseattractive frogs canbe fedwith soft
insects such as houseflies or crickets.The
Carolina Tree Frog is mainly crepuscular,
butonceacclimatedcanoftenbe seenby.
The temperature shoulddropbelow20 °C
only for overwintering, and at 16 °C the
frogs start tobecome sluggish and inun-
coordinated in theirmovements.
TheCarolinaTreeFroghasoftenbeenbred
successfully and this only requires over-
wintering fora fewweeksata temperature
of around 15 °Cwith a reducedperiodof
lighting (8-10hours insteadof thenormal
12-14 hours). Unfortunately, as already
mentioned, femalesare scarce,so thebest
course is toobtain10 to15half-grownspe-
cimens.Therewill thenbe a good chance
of therebeing females in thegroupaswell,
rather than just abunchofmales.
Ifyouarenow filledwith thedesire tokeep
and breed Carolina Tree Frogs, your pet
dealer can undoubtedly order them for
you froma trustworthywholesaler, for ex-
ampleTropenparadies inOberhausen,Fax
+490208-665997
Lexicon
Tree frogs
Hyla:after thehandsomeHylas,a
companionof themythical ancient
GreekheroHeracles.Duringoneof
their adventuresHylaswas lured into
apool bynymphs.Heracles sought
forhim longbut invain, repeatedly
callinghisname.
arboreameans "of trees"
meridionalismeans "southern"
cinereameans "ashgray"
evittatameans "without stripe(s)"
Eichhornia:named inhonorof the
Prussianminister J.A.Fr.Eichhorn
(1779-1856)
