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| Common Rain Frog, Eleutherodactylus johnstonei Barbour, 1914. Photographed in Grenada. Females reach 35 mm. This is a widespread and invasive frog from the Lesser Antilles. Habitats used range from rainforests to gardens, yards, and agroecosystems. The exact island(s) of origin is unknown, but it has been widely distributed with the help of humans, probably via ornamental plants. Its habitats Their 2 note call can be heard after dark. Females attend their eggs which are laid on the ground. Studies of their diet suggest that ants and arachnids make up a large portion of their food intake. |
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| Shiny Peep Frog, Eleutherodactylus nitidus (Peters, 1870). Photographed in the vicinity of Chapala, Mexico. The species is known from the Mexican states of Durango, Sinaloa, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Nayarit, Colima, and Michoacan. This frog has also been placed in the genera Tomodactylus, Eleutherodactylus, Paludicola, and Liuperus. |
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| Frogs in this family were placed in the family Leptodactylidae for many years, and then moved to the Brachycephalidae, they have now been placed in their own family by Hedges et al. (2008, Zootaxa, 1737: 1-182). Brachycephalid frogs range from Texas and western Mexico southward to Belize and Guatemala;they are present from Honduras southward to central Panama on the Atlantic slope and on the Pacific slope of central Panama; southward along the Pacific slope through western Colombia to northwestern Ecuador; Amazonian Colombia, Peru, and Brazil; eastern Venezuela through central Guyana, Surinam, and French Guinea to extreme northern Brazil; and they are present Greater and Lesser Antilles. The family contains 4 genera and about 200 species. Members of the genus Eleutherodactylus are sometimes called rain frogs or robber frogs, but many local names have been applied to them. Species of Eleutherodactylus tend to be polymorphic which makes identification difficult. Many of them that have been studied show parental care, and all but one deposit eggs in terrestrial or arboreal locations, and have direct development (no tadpole stage, eggs hatch into froglets). The Puerto Rican, E. jasperi is viviparous, and gives birth to froglets, instead of having them hatch from eggs laid in a nest. The eggs of these frogs tend to be large (3-6mm) and may number 3-104, with an average of about 20 per clutch. Eleutherodactylus is the largest genus of vertebrates with more than 600 species. Some are minute and frog-like, while others are quite large and toad like. These anurans can make long vertical jumps. |
