Javanese copepod flying frog. What frogs fly? See what "Flying Frog" is in other dictionaries

“Born to crawl - cannot fly” - this is clearly not about our hero of the note. Of course, real flight is possible only for birds, and all other animals (mammals, reptiles and amphibians) can only soar in the air, using all kinds of devices for this.

Javanese flying frog (lat. Rhacophorus reinwardti) (eng. Reinwardt's Flying Frog)

Here are some types of tree frogs that have acquired them. Thanks to the huge membranes on the hind and front legs, they can glide in the air for a distance of several tens of meters. The membrane area of ​​the Javan flying frog from the islands of Java and Sumatra can reach 19 square meters. cm.

But it's not the only frog that can fly. Many members of the copepod or copepod family are capable of this. We already wrote about one of them - this is Wallace's flying frog from the island of Borneo. In total, this family includes 231 species included in 10 genera. All of them live in tropical forests South-East Asia, in the Malay Archipelago, in Central and South Africa and also on the island of Madagascar. Almost all lead an arboreal lifestyle.

Photo by Jodi J. L. Rowley

Our heroine lives in the mountainous regions of the islands of Sumatra and Java, in connection with which, in fact, she got her name.
Outwardly, it is very similar to that famous flying frog from the island of Borneo, but still has its own distinctive features. Firstly, the presence of a leathery keel along the ridge, and secondly, in adults, the membranes on the hind and front legs do not have dark stripes or spots.

Photo by Takeshi Ebinuma

The length of adults does not exceed 7.5 centimeters. Females are larger than males. The body is slender, the legs are long. The color is bright - the back is painted in a rich green color, and the abdomen is bright yellow or orange. In young individuals, the webs on the paws and axillary areas are covered with dark purple or blue spots, which disappear with age (sometimes there are barely noticeable spots between the 4th and 5th toes of the hind legs).

On the fingers there are special swellings that act as suction cups during landing on a vertical surface. An important role is also played by intercalary cartilage-shock absorbers between the last phalanxes of the fingers, which help to soften the landing.

Photo by Tim Laman

Their larvae also have a slightly unusual structure. They have suction cups on the front half of the abdomen, just behind the mouth opening. The tadpoles themselves are very long and can almost reach the size of their parents. The length of the tail alone reaches 4.5 centimeters. Above and below it is covered with a wide leathery crest.

Java frogs can fall into a kind of hibernation.

Their breeding season lasts quite a long time - from January to August, but it reaches a special peak in spring months- in March-April. After mating, the female moves closer to coastal plants. The place for laying eggs is chosen directly above the water, so that immediately after hatching the tadpoles are in the water. But before that, alone, and sometimes together with a partner, with the help of her paws, she whips up a special foamy substance, where she lays her eggs. There are about 60-70 eggs in a clutch.

Of course, it is too early to say that they have mastered the airspace. The so-called representatives of the copepod family are the only more or less flying frogs. They do not fly higher than tree crowns, but they do not cease to be amazing creatures.

If you look closely at copepod frogs sitting on a branch of a tree, then it will not be easy to guess that they are about to take off. After all, usually flying have wings or special organs that replace them. Flying frogs don't have anything like that at all, but they still take off.

flight technique

Copepod frogs can safely be called glider pilots! Before flying, they inflate their body in a peculiar way, spread their fingers quite widely and stretch the swimming membranes, which have turned into flying ones in this family of amphibians. Then the balloon frogs jump forward, positioning their legs so that, without a shadow of a doubt, turn into a single plane.

It should be noted that the design of this aircraft» copepod frogs is very mediocre. For example, leopard flying frogs that live on the islands of the Malay Archipelago can quite easily overcome a distance equal to 3/5 of the height from which they jump.

For example, black-footed, which is next to the leopard (also in Thailand and Laos), jumping from a height of 10 m, flies 14 m. The Javanese flying frog is also worth noting. She, of course, is less talented than the "black-paw", but she is still able to overcome distances of 10-12 m.

Flying frog lifestyle

The vast majority of individuals from the family of copepod frogs lead a predominantly arboreal lifestyle. Mostly representatives of the genus of flying frogs fly. The fact is that their long fingers on the paws are interconnected by special membranes. The tips of these fingers are swollen.

These swellings are necessary so that the frog can firmly hold on to one or another tree trunk. When it sits down, for example, on a smooth leaf, the swellings on the fingers flatten, turning into special suction cups, which hold the amphibian on the branches of trees during rest.

Where do they live?

The family of copepod frogs is considered quite extensive and includes more than 400 various kinds. The traditional habitats of these glider aeronauts are tropical zones Southeast Asia, Japan, Central and South America(including Madagascar), the islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Have you ever met, walking along the banks of our rivers and lakes, flying frogs? No, of course, and why do they need this skill? But if ordinary frogs can only dream of flying, then for the copepod frogs of Southeast Asia they are a real reality.

First time flying Java frogs(lat. Rhacophorus reinwardtii) saw Alfred Russel Wallace - famous English naturalist and a biologist who traveled to Malaysia for scientific purposes in the mid-19th century.

Having made a huge number of the most amazing discoveries, however, he was shocked by this miracle of nature, which one of his assistants brought him to show. It was a small-sized tree frog, in which quite developed membranes were observed on the front and hind legs between the fingers. Russell's comrade claimed to have seen this frog literally fly off the tree.

Having established observation of these amazing creatures, naturalists noticed that during the flight the frogs spread their fingers, thereby greatly increasing the surface of the membranes. In addition, they had an amazing ability to inflate like a balloon.

And thanks to special suction cups on inside paws, they not only deftly climbed trees, but also stuck to any, even the smoothest surface. Thus, tree frogs were able to glide perfectly in the air, jumping from one tree to another without any problems.

Flying frogs are the most prominent representatives family of copepod frogs (lat. Rhacophorus). They live exclusively in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia, Africa and Madagascar. Having a special skeletal structure that significantly distinguishes them from other representatives of the frog world, they are able to overcome ten-meter distances with the help of their amazing paws.

Most of the time these frogs spend on trees. Many of them produce offspring there, laying eggs in nests that they build from a special mucus secreted by females. Males, which are rather modest in size in relation to females, help knock down the mucus into a thick foam. Tree frogs lead night image life and feed on various insects.

Among the representatives of copepod frogs, there are also those that live exclusively in water. Their webbed paws serve as oars, with which they move rapidly.

Family of copepods, or flying frogs

“One of the rarest and most interesting amphibians,” says Wallace, “that I found in Borneo, was a large tree frog brought to me by a Chinese worker. tall tree. Upon closer examination of the animal, I found that the very large toes of its hind feet were webbed to their outermost ends, so that, being splayed out, they represented an area greater than that of the body. The toes of the front paws were similarly connected by a membrane, and finally the body could swell considerably. The back and limbs had a brilliant dark green color, the legs had dark transverse stripes, the underside of the body and the inner finger were yellow, the swimming membranes were shaded with yellow and black stripes. The length of the body was approximately 19 cm, while the area of ​​the completely splayed membrane of each of the hind legs was 28, and of all the swimming membranes taken together - 81 cm2 **.

* * Gliding in this way, copepod frogs can fly over a distance of 10-12 m. Jumping on branches and trees, they use suction disks to stay on them. Intercalary cartilage-shock absorbers between the last phalanxes of the fingers also play a certain role in the "landing".

Since the ends of the toes of the hind legs had special trailing pads that helped the animal to hold on and proved that it belonged to tree frogs, it is not entirely believed that these extensive webs of the hind legs served only for swimming, and the Chinese story that this frog flew off a tree , acquires a known probability. Since then, this has been repeatedly confirmed by other European travelers.
As far as I know, this is the first example of a flying frog that deserves attention, as it shows that a change in the organization of fingers, which could already be adapted for swimming and climbing, can go further and allows some species of amphibians to be airborne, like flying squirrels or flying lizards."
The frog, which Wallace describes in the above words, and in which he rightly saw a new, as yet undescribed species, is Bornean flying frog(Rhacophorus partialis), representative genus of copepod frogs, or flying frogs(Rhacophorus), of which 42 species are now known: 30 from south and east Asia and 12 from Madagascar.*

* Currently, flying frogs are classified as an independent family, which includes 231 species from 10 genera.

All of them differ from green frogs by a false bone between the last and before the last joint of the toes of the hind legs; the outer end of the penultimate joint is also outside and, moreover, at the top along the back of the finger, is characterized by the presence of a tubercle; the toes of the forelegs are also almost always interconnected by swimming membranes. The fingers of both pairs of limbs are always equipped with trailing circles. In all other respects, these frogs internal organization none significant differences they don't, although they look perfect from the outside tree frogs and, like them, live in trees and bushes. The male has one or two internal resonator bubbles.

One of the forms species related described by Wallace is Javan flying frog(Rhacophorus reinwardti), a species that is not uncommon in the mountain forests of Java and Sumatra. This frog differs from its closest relative in a leathery keel along the ridge and hind legs, uncovered stripes, in young animals large, in life, dark blue spots on the swimming membrane of both the front and hind legs and the same spots behind the elbow under the armpits. In animals that have reached 7.5 cm in length, the remains of these dark spots are present only between the fourth and fifth, and at most between the third and fourth toes of the hind legs, in other places the spots disappear. In life, this beautiful frog is painted dark green and has a bright yellow belly.
According to Boulanger, the larva of this animal is very interesting, since there are round suckers on the front half of its belly behind the mouth opening. Its muzzle is elongated like a trunk, the respiratory gap lies on the right side of the body, closer to the end of the tail than to the end of the muzzle. The tail of this tadpole, equal to 4.5 cm, has a wide leathery crest below and above. Nothing is known about the lifestyle of this larva.

Life of animals. - M.: State publishing house of geographical literature. A. Brem. 1958

"One of the rarest and most interesting amphibians," says Alfred Wallace (Alfred Russel Wallace), - which I found in Borneo, was a large tree frog brought to me by a Chinese worker. He said that he saw a frog, as if swimming, flew obliquely from a tall tree. Upon closer examination of the animal, I found that the very large toes of its hind feet were webbed to their outermost ends, so that, being splayed out, they represented an area greater than that of the body. The toes of the front paws were similarly connected by a membrane, and finally the body could swell considerably. The back and limbs had a brilliant dark green color, the legs had dark transverse stripes, the underside of the body and the inner finger were yellow, the swimming membranes were shaded with yellow and black stripes. The length of the body was approximately 19 cm, while the area of ​​the completely splayed membrane of each of the hind legs was 28, and of all the swimming membranes taken together - 81 cm 2.
Since the ends of the toes of the hind legs had special trailing pads that helped the animal to hold on and proved that it belonged to tree frogs, it is not entirely believed that these extensive webs of the hind legs served only for swimming, and the Chinese story that this frog flew off a tree , acquires a known probability. Since then, this has been repeatedly confirmed by other European travelers.
As far as I know, this is the first example of a flying frog that deserves attention, as it shows that a change in the organization of fingers, which could already be adapted for swimming and climbing, can go further and allows some species of amphibians to be airborne, like flying squirrels or flying lizards."

English version.

With Russian translation.

The frog, which Wallace describes in the above words, and in which he rightly saw a new, as yet undescribed species, is Bornean flying frog(Rhacophorus partialis), representative genus of copepod frogs, or flying frogs(Rhacophorus), of which 42 species are now known: 30 from southern and eastern Asia and 12 from Madagascar.
All of them differ from green frogs by a false bone between the last and before the last joint of the toes of the hind legs; the outer end of the penultimate joint is also outside and, moreover, at the top along the back of the finger, is characterized by the presence of a tubercle; the toes of the forelegs are also almost always interconnected by swimming membranes. The fingers of both pairs of limbs are always equipped with trailing circles. In all other respects, these frogs do not have any significant differences in internal organization, although in appearance they look exactly like tree frogs and, like them, live in trees and bushes. The male has one or two internal resonator bubbles.

One form related to the species described by Wallace is Javan flying frog(Rhacophorus reinwardti), a species that is not uncommon in the mountain forests of Java and Sumatra. This frog differs from its closest relative in a leathery keel along the ridge and hind legs, uncovered stripes, in young animals large, in life, dark blue spots on the swimming membrane of both the front and hind legs and the same spots behind the elbow under the armpits. In animals that have reached 7.5 cm in length, the remains of these dark spots are present only between the fourth and fifth, and at most between the third and fourth toes of the hind legs, in other places the spots disappear. In life, this beautiful frog is painted dark green and has a bright yellow belly.
According to Boulanger, the larva of this animal is very interesting, since there are round suckers on the front half of its belly behind the mouth opening. Its muzzle is elongated like a trunk, the respiratory gap lies on the right side of the body, closer to the end of the tail than to the end of the muzzle. The tail of this tadpole, equal to 4.5 cm, has a wide leathery crest below and above. Nothing is known about the lifestyle of this larva.

Rhacophorus nigropalmatus

Rhacophorus pardalis

Rhacophorus reinwardtii

1) Gliding in this way, copepod frogs can fly over a distance of 10-12 m. Jumping on branches and trees, they use suction disks to stay on them. Intercalary cartilage-shock absorbers between the last phalanxes of the fingers also play a certain role in the "landing".
2) Currently, flying frogs are isolated in an independent family, which includes 231 species from 10 genera.