Castle Rock Night Frog

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Castle Rock Night Frog Nyctibatrachus petraeus | Amboli, Maharashtra

This is a species of night frog from the ghats of Northern Karnataka, Goa and Southern Maharashtra. The male chooses a perch (usually a leaf above a stream) to call from, and each time a female responds, an egg clutch is deposited at the perch, and then the male continues to call for mates. One can thus find males with several egg clutches in different stages of development.

This species has vocal sacs on the sides of its mouth, as seen here. Shall soon post an image showing the layout of the vocal sacs. Call audio here - http://www.indiawilds.com/forums/showthread.php?17642-Castle-Rock-Night-Frog&p=80583#post80583

Canon 500 D, Canon 100 mm Macro USM
SS 1/160
Av 16
ISO 400
Inbuilt flash fired
Minor crop

Thanks, C&C welcome.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Lovely details. The eggs clutches look nice. So the male looks after the eggs? Thanks for sharing.

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

The male stays at the spot with the egg clutches, but not sure if this species actually "looks after" the eggs. One can also find egg clutches without the frogs near them. However, there is one species - the Wayanad Night Frog, which I had posted almost 2 years ago - that actively guards its area.

[Samrat Sarkar]

Superb image with interesting info..Thanks for sharing

samrat

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Interesting to see this. I remember the photo of Wayanad night frog photo. Any idea about the predation on these eggs?