Skip to main content
Search specimens, taxon records etc. Learn more »


Common tree frog (Polypedates leucomystax)

Gudindang or common tree frog or golden tree frog or four-lined tree frog or striped tree frog (Polypedates leucomystax) is a species of frog in Rhacophoridae that usually lives on trees, is medium-sized, rather slim, about 50 mm long in males and 80 mm in female. Dorsal has smooth skin, no creases, bumps or pimples.

P. leucomystax has variable colors including yellowish brown, grayish to pale whitish. Some are plain, while others have large dark spots and small or elongated stripes. This frog also changes color from a rather dark and contrasting pattern at night to pale and faint at noon.

Dlium Common tree frog (Polypedates leucomystax)

Gudindang has a dark to black ribbon between the nose and eyes, then back over the top of the ear to the shoulder. This black ribbon is bordered by thin golden yellow lines on the top, especially from the eyes to the shoulders.

A similar golden line also appears at the narrow sides of the hand from the elbow to the lateral side of the fingers and on the side of the foot to the lateral side of the toes. Ventral finely polished and golden white. Hands and thighs have blackish slashes.

Half of the fingers have a membrane to swim or almost nothing. The swimming membrane on the foot is blackish, reaching the tip of the finger at the end, except for the fourth finger which is the longest where only the second segment of the tip.

The common tree frog has large, protruding eyes, golden yellow iris, golden upper lip and blackish lower lip. They are often found in secondary forests or near villages. Active especially at night and often loudly shouting since dusk. This frog preys on various types of insects.





Many male individuals, sometimes up to 10 individuals, gather near ponds, ditches or puddles during the mating season. Males climb low bushes or small trees near puddles to a height of 1 m or more above the ground and shout calls to lure females.

If they meet, the couple moves to look for leaves or twigs that hang on the water to attach eggs to a foam nest attached to a pool that hangs on leaves, twigs, grass stems or sometimes on the walls of waterways.

Foam bubbles to protect the eggs from drought until it's time to hatch and the tadpoles come out falling into the water. In the mating season, several male frogs are aggressive towards the presence of light by approaching and perching and sounding: pro-ek...! wrok... krot... krot... krot, like people rubbing teeth.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Rhacophoridae
Subfamily: Rhacophorinae
Genus: Polypedates
Species: Polypedates leucomystax

Popular Posts

A deep-sea isopod Bathyopsurus nybelini adapted to feed submerged Sargassum algae

NEWS - Incredible footage shows a marine species, Bathyopsurus nybelini , feeding on something that sinks from the ocean’s surface. Researchers using the submersible Alvin found the isopod swimming 3.7 miles down using its paddle-like legs to catch an unexpected food source: Sargassum. Researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the University of Montana, SUNY Geneseo, Willamette University and the University of Rhode Island found the algae sinking, while the isopod waited and adapted specifically to find and feed on the sinking nutrient source. The Sargassum lives on the surface for photosynthesis. The discovery of a deep-sea animal that relies on food that sinks from the waters miles above underscores the close relationship between the surface and the deep. “It’s fascinating to see this beautiful animal actively interacting with sargassum, so deep in the ocean. This isopod is extremely rare; only a handful of specimens were collected during the groundbreaking Swedis

Ngamugawi wirnagarri reveals evolution of coelacanth fish and history of life on earth

NEWS - An ancient Devonian coelacanth has been remarkably well preserved in a remote location in Western Australia linked to increased tectonic activity. An international team of researchers analysed fossils of the primitive fish from the Gogo Formation of Ngamugawi wirngarri , which straddles a key transition period in the history of coelacanths, between the most primitive and more modern forms. The new fish species adds to the evidence for Earth’s evolutionary journey. Climate change, asteroid strikes and plate tectonics are all key subjects in the origins and extinctions of animals that played a major role in evolution. Is the world’s oldest ‘living fossil’ the coelacanth still evolving? “We found that plate tectonic activity had a major influence on the rate of coelacanth evolution. New species are more likely to have evolved during periods of increased tectonic activity when new habitats were divided and created,” says Alice Clement of Flinders University in Adelaide. The Late Dev

Species going extinct every day and without warning

NEWS - The current rate of human-caused extinction is up to 700 times higher than it was in the past. Extinctions are no different for plants, animals and fungi, although the extinctions of botanicals and invertebrates have been far worse than those of vertebrates. The mass extinctions increased from 1890 to 1940, but a decline in extinctions was only recorded after the 1980s, likely due to taxonomic bottlenecks and the pre-1800 extinction rates being affected by a lack of data. The number of species varies from 2-8 million to 1 trillion, and estimates suggest that most species, especially microbes and fungi that may be key to healthy ecosystems, are still undiscovered. The biodiversity crisis is therefore extremely difficult to measure. “If we don’t know what we have, it’s impossible to measure how much we’re losing. This taxonomic gap urgently needs to be addressed,” say Maarten Christenhusz and RafaĆ«l Govaerts of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Yet taxonomy is in decline. Misunderst