Common Squeaker
Arthroleptis stenodactylus
Summary 3
The Common Squeaker (Arthroleptis stenodactylus) is a species of frog in the Arthroleptidae family. It is found in Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and possibly Uganda. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical moist montane forests, dry savanna, moist savanna, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, subtropical or tropical moist shrubland, plantations, rural gardens, urban areas, and heavily degraded former forest.
Description 4
Arthroleptis stenodactylus is known as the Common Squeaker, Shovel Footed Squeaker, or the Dune Squeaker (Minter et al. 2004). The male reaches up to 33 mm in length, and has a dark throat. It also has small spines on its back and limbs, a narrower head than the female, and an elongated third finger that grows quickly after it reaches sexual maturity. The female reaches up to 44 mm, and has a white throat with some pectoral spots. This species is heavily built with relatively short rear legs. Each hind foot has an inner metatarsal tubercle shaped like the edge of a shovel (thus giving rise to one of this frog's common names: Shovel Footed Squeaker). The soles of the feet are dark, and the toes are unwebbed. The ground color is brown. Dorsal patterning features include a pair of dark spots near the sacrum, a dark line on each side running from the snout over the tympanum to the shoulder, and various combinations of 3-lobed dorsal bands. There is also sometimes a light vertebral line. Ventral patterning ranges from heavily speckled to none (Channing 2001).
The species name stenodactylus refers to the elongated third finger of mature males (Channing, 2001).
Sources and Credits
- (c) Arno Meintjes, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://www.flickr.com/photos/15745225@N00/440543300
- (c) Jakob Fahr, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Jakob Fahr
- (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthroleptis_stenodactylus
- (c) AmphibiaWeb © 2000-2015 The Regents of the University of California, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://eol.org/data_objects/34266226
