Sunset Frog

Spicospina flammocaerulea Roberts, Horwitz, Wardell-Johnson, Maxson & Mahony 1997

Species Info Card | Updated 1 decade ago

A moderate-sized frog with enlarged paratoid glands and highly distinctive raised glands along the back. The back is dark purple-black. The undersurface is brilliant orange with mottled grey-sky blue. The hands and feet are bright orange. The toes and fingers are long with no webbing and the foot lacks outer metatarsal tubercles. Maximum known size 3.6 cm.

Breeding Biology

Males call from late spring around the edges of pools and under dense cover. Laid in swamps. Tadpoles can take several months before metamorphosis.

Habitat

Unique peat swamps characterized by the Albany Pitcher Plant and dense moss beds.

Etymology

Spicospina refers to processes on the spinal cord; flammocaerulea refs to the brilliant organe and blue belly.

General

The Sunset Frog is one of the oldest WA frogs, estimated to have diverged from its closest relatives (Uperoleia spp.) at least 30 million years old. It is quite distinct from other Australian frogs and was only discovered in the early 1990s and described in 1997. Owing to its small distribution it is listed as 'vunerable'.

Restricted to a small area near Walpole and Nornalup in the south-west.

The call is a very distinctive 'da duk' repeated rapidly.