Description
This species is essentially identical to the gray treefrog (Hyla versicolor) The upper side has numerous small warts and is usually green (especially juveniles) to gray and often has a pattern that resembles lichens that grow on tree trunks. There is a light spot under each eye. The groin and concealed bases of the hind legs are orange-yellow with black mottling. Maximum size is about 2.5 inches (6 cm) snout-vent length. Breeding male can be recognized by their darl loose throat skin. Breeding calls are loud trills (often mistaken for a woodpecker's call), with pulses emitted faster than in the gray treefrog (Hyla versicolor). Larvae have strongly arched tails fins that may be heavily mottled with black and often tinged red or orange, and (if not broken) ending in a slender filament. Larvae reach a total length of up to around 1.5 inches (3.8 cm). Egg masses contain clusters of about 6-45 eggs, floating free or loosely attached to submerged vegetation.
Habitat
Cope's gray treefrogs inhabit wooded areas and woodland edges (including woodlots in prairies), usually within a few hundred meters of the aquatic habitats in whch they breed. Often they occur in recently disturbed areas with abundant shrubs, herbaceous growth, and vines. Activity is arboreal and terrestrial. In Tennessee, frogs associated with knothole cavities in trees in fall were not there after mid-November (Ritke and Babb 1991). When inactive, frogs may hide in tree holes, under bark, under leaves, or under tree roots.
Breeding sites include temporary or permanent waters of flooded ditches, puddles, river sloughs, creeks, and small ponds, where there are woody branches or extensive herbaceous growth along the edges. Males call from the water surface or from vegetation or ground near water. Individuals generally breed in the same site in successive years (Ritke et al. 1991).
Ecology
In Tennessee, the majority of the adults marked in one year were not recaptured the following year, probably due to predation and/or winter mortality (or possibly postponed reproduction) (Ritke et al. 1991).
Skin secretions of these frogs are noxious to certain potential predators and may cause irritation if they contact human eyes or other sensitive membranes.
Reproduction
Breeding occurs in spring-early summer (May-early July in Kansas, April-July in Maryland, April-August in western Tennessee). Often, but not always, breeding is stimulated by rainfall and warm temperatures. A female's clutch is divided among small clusters of around 20-40 eggs, deposited at the water's surface or attached to emergent plants. Individual females produce 1-3 clutches/year in Kansas and Tennessee (most females produce one clutch/year). Eggs hatch in several days. Larvae metamorphose in about 6-9 weeks, by end of summer (may rarely overwinter; McCallum and McCallum, 2005, Herpetol. Rev. 36:54). Males mated up to 3 times per season in Kansas; most calling males did not mate (Godwin and Roble 1983, Ritke et al. 1990). Females in Tennessee apparently require at least two years to reach sexual maturity.