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Home/Species/ Pine Woods Treefrog

Dryophytes femoralis

(Daudin, 1800)

Pine Woods Treefrog

G5Secure Found in 10 roadless areas NatureServe Explorer →
G5SecureGlobal Rank
Least concernIUCN
Identity
Unique IDELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.106454
Element CodeAAABC02090
Record TypeSPECIES
ClassificationSpecies
Classification StatusStandard
Name CategoryVertebrate Animal
IUCNLeast concern
Endemicendemic to a single nation
KingdomAnimalia
PhylumCraniata
ClassAmphibia
OrderAnura
FamilyHylidae
GenusDryophytes
Synonyms
Hyla femoralisBosc, 1800
Other Common Names
pine woods treefrog (EN)
Concept Reference
Frost, D. R. 1985. Amphibian species of the world. A taxonomic and geographical reference. Allen Press, Inc., and The Association of Systematics Collections, Lawrence, Kansas. v + 732 pp.
Taxonomic Comments
Duellman et al. (2016) restricted Hyla to Eurasia and North Africa and referred the North American and east Asian sister taxon of this group to Dryophytes. This taxonomy was accepted by Amphibian Species of the World and followed here. It is not followed by the Society for the Study of Amphibians And Reptiles (SSAR) with Crother (2017) stating, "acceptance of this taxonomy within the community is not clear at this point."

Faivovich et al. (2005) redelimited this monophyletic taxon to include only North American and Eurasian species. Hua et al. (2009) discussed relationships within the group. Fouquette and Dubois (2014) recognized a suite of subgenera based on genetic and morphological evidence, but pending a more thorough evidentiary review, Crother (2017) hesitates to employ this taxonomy. Li et al. (2015) suggested that this species is the sister taxon of the Hyla japonica group.
Conservation Status
Review Date2002-04-02
Change Date2001-10-26
Edition Date2010-01-26
Edition AuthorsHammerson, G.
Range Extent200,000-2,500,000 square km (about 80,000-1,000,000 square miles)
Range Extent Comments
Range encompasses the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal plains, from southern Virginia to eastern Louisiana, and south to southern Florida (Conant and Collins 1991).
Occurrences Comments
Represented by many and/or large occurrences throughout most of the range.
Ecology & Habitat

Description

The upper surface is reddish brown to grayish green, usually with dark blotches. Sometimes a dark band extends from the snout through the eye and eardrum. The rear surface of the thighs has orange to silver spots or blotches. The toe tips are expanded into rounded pads. Maximum size is around 1.8 inches (4.5 cm) snout-vent length. Breeding male have a dark throat. Breeding calls consist of a raspy, staccato series reminiscent of Morse Code or a cicada. Larvae are brownish red to dark green and have a strongly arched tail fin that is often tinged red, with dark blotches along the edges, and ending (if not damaged) in a slender filament. Larvae are up to about 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) in total length. Eggs are deposited in loose masses of usually 100-250 eggs.

Habitat

Pine woods treefrogs inhabit longleaf pine-wiregrass flatwoods and savannas and longleaf pine-turkey oak sandhills, usually near bogs or ponds. Occasionally they occur in hardwood forests and swamps. Activity is mostly arboreal, with perch sites ranging from low shrubs to high tree tops. frogs may hide under or in rotting logs, stumps, or snags during dry or cold weather. Eggs and larvae develop in flooded ditches and transient pools and ponds, occasionally in cypress swamps.

Reproduction

Breeding occurs mainly in spring but may extend through summer, during warm wet weather. Females attach batches of about 100-250 eggs to submerged vegetation at or near the water's surface. Aquatic larvae hatch within as liittle as a few days and metamorphose into the terrestrial form in about 7-10 weeks.
Terrestrial Habitats
Forest - HardwoodForest - ConiferForest - MixedWoodland - HardwoodWoodland - ConiferWoodland - MixedSavanna
Palustrine Habitats
TEMPORARY POOLSCRUB-SHRUB WETLANDFORESTED WETLANDRiparian
Other Nations (1)
United StatesN5
ProvinceRankNative
North CarolinaS5Yes
FloridaS4Yes
VirginiaS4Yes
GeorgiaS5Yes
LouisianaS4Yes
South CarolinaS5Yes
MississippiS5Yes
AlabamaS4Yes
Roadless Areas (10)
Florida (6)
AreaForestAcres
Alexander Springs CreekOcala National Forest2,954
Clear LakeApalachicola National Forest5,592
Gum BayApalachicola National Forest11,645
Long BayApalachicola National Forest5,726
PinhookOsceola National Forest15,405
SavannahApalachicola National Forest1,927
North Carolina (4)
AreaForestAcres
Catfish Lake NorthCroatan National Forest11,299
Catfish Lake South - BCroatan National Forest172
Pond Pine BCroatan National Forest2,961
Sheep Ridge AdditionCroatan National Forest5,808
References (17)
  1. Bartlett, R. D., and P. P. Bartlett. 1999a. A field guide to Texas reptiles & amphibians. Gulf Publishing Company, Houston, Texas. xviii + 331 pp.
  2. Behler, J. L., and F. W. King. 1979. The Audubon Society field guide to North American reptiles and amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. 719 pp.
  3. Blackburn, L., P. Nanjappa, and M. J. Lannoo. 2001. An Atlas of the Distribution of U.S. Amphibians. Copyright, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, USA.
  4. Caldwell, J.P. 1982. Hyla gratiosa. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles. 298:1-2.
  5. Conant, R. 1975. A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America. Second Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts. xvii + 429 pp.
  6. Conant, R. and J. T. Collins. 1991. A field guide to reptiles and amphibians: eastern and central North America. Third edition. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, Massachusetts. 450 pp.
  7. Crother, B. I. (editor). 2017. Scientific and standard English names of amphibians and reptiles of North America north of Mexico, with comments regarding confidence in our understanding. 8th edition. SSAR Herpetological Circular 43:1-104. [Updates in SSAR North American Species Names Database at: https://ssarherps.org/cndb]
  8. Duellman, W. E., A. B. Marion, and S. B. Hedges. 2016. Phylogenetics, classification, and biogeography of the treefrogs (Amphibia: Anura: Arboranae). Zootaxa 4104: 1–109.
  9. Faivovich, J., C.F.B. Haddad, P.C.A. Garcia, D.R. Frost, J.A. Campbell and W.C. Wheeler. 2005. Systematic review of the frog family Hylidae, with special reference to Hylinae: Phylogenetic analysis and taxonomic revision. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 294:1-240.
  10. Fouquette Jr., M.J., and A. DuBois. 2014. A Checklist of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. Seventh Edition. Volume 1—Amphibians. Xlibris LLC, Bloomington, Indiana. 586 pp.
  11. Frost, D. R. 1985. Amphibian species of the world. A taxonomic and geographical reference. Allen Press, Inc., and The Association of Systematics Collections, Lawrence, Kansas. v + 732 pp.
  12. Frost, D.R. 2020. Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA. Online: http://research.amnh.org/herpetology/amphibia/index.html
  13. Hoffman, R.L. 1988c. <i>Hyla femoralis</i>. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles 436:1-3.
  14. Hua, X., C.-z. Fu, J.-t. Li, A. Nieto-Montes de Oca, and J. J. Wiens. 2009. A revised phylogeny of Holarctic treefrogs (genus <i>Hyla</i>) based on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences. Herpetologica 65:246-259.
  15. Li, J.-t., J.-s. Wang, H.-h. Nian, S. N. Litvinchuk, J. Wang, Y. Li, D.-q. Rao, and S. Klaus. 2015. Amphibians crossing the Bering Land Bridge: Evidence from holarctic treefrogs (<i>Hyla</i>, Hylidae, <i>Anura</i>). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 87:80-90.
  16. Martof, B. S., W. M. Palmer, J. R. Bailey, and J. R. Harrison, III. 1980. Amphibians and reptiles of the Carolinas and Virginia. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. 264 pp.
  17. Mount, R. H. 1975. The reptiles and amphibians of Alabama. Auburn University Agricultural Experiment Station, Auburn, Alabama. vii + 347 pp.