Wild Herps - Hispaniolan Laughing Treefrog (Osteopilus dominicensis) (original) (raw)

Osteopilus dominicensis — Hispaniolan Laughing Treefrog

Also known as:

Dominican Treefrog, Hispaniola Common Treefrog

Casa de Campo, Dominican Republic—May 11, 1999

Hispaniolan Laughing Treefrog (Osteopilus dominicensis)

This wonderfully large and froggy frog lives only on the island of Hispaniola. A group of them sang a raucus chorus for us every night behind our villa.

Thanks to Marcelino Hernandez who corrected my identification. I had originally listed this frog as Hyla pulchrilineata by incorrectly following the key in Henderson & Schwartz. Sr. Hernandez informed me that H. pulchrilineata is a very rarely-seen species.

Casa de Campo, Dominican Republic—May 12, 1999

Hispaniolan Laughing Treefrog (Osteopilus dominicensis)

We stayed for five nights in a villa with a veranda open to any critters that could fit through the four-inch open spaces in a wooden trellis. This included a variety of anoles and geckos, as well as these treefrogs. Every night there would be one or more in the veranda to surprise us when we got back from dinner. They are incredible leapers and climbers, and usually the nightly visitors would escape outdoors in a prodigious jump or two, but this one hung around for a photo.

Online references:

This page has two photographs of this species.

Printed references:

Henderson, R. W., Schwartz, A. 1984. A Guide to the Identification of the Amphibians and Reptiles of Hispaniola
Schwartz, A., Henderson, R. W. 1991. Amphibians and Reptiles of the West Indies: Descriptions, Distributions, and Natural History