Genus Species: Lithobates clamitans
Size: 2¼ – 4¼”
Location: Found throughout Arkansas
Advertisement Call: A “plunk” like a loose banjo string made from a pair of internal vocal sacs.
Here is Kermit the Frog! To remember the call of the green frog picture Kermit sitting on the ground plunking his banjo.
Although the green frog is found throughout the state, two subspecies split the state in half. The Northern Green Frog (Lithobates clamitans melanota) occurs in the Ozark Plateau, River Valley, and Ouachitas, while the Bronze Frog (Lithobates clamitans clamitans) is found in the Coastal Plain, Mississippi Alluvial Plain, and Crowley’s Ridge.
Despite its name, this frog is often brownish with brown to black spots. It usually has a light green upper lip and dorsolateral folds along its back (two parallel fold lines – see picture). Those folds distinguish these frogs from bullfrogs that don’t have the folds. The eardrums (tympanums) of the males are larger than their eyes, while in the female they are about the same size as their eyes. Is the frog pictured a male or a female?
Interesting Fact: In many species of frogs males have tympanums larger than their eyes.
Green frogs will breed from April to the end of summer. The females will lay 4,000 or more eggs in a raft-like mass that floats on the surface. Tadpoles will hatch in a few days and develop into mature frogs the following year after spending the winter as pollywogs.
Green frogs are members of the Ranidae (True Frogs) family of New Frogs (Neobatrachia). When startled, these frogs will let out a loud squeak and leap into the nearest pond with a big splash.
Click for more about Green Frogs at Herps of Arkansas.