Striped Tree Frog

Identification - Polypedates leucomystax, Striped Tree Frog (thanks Paladian).

Despite their bright color, these frogs are still difficult to spot, probably registering in my brain as just a dead leaf, also they remain absolutely motionless even when approached up close. But, once you get within 12 inches, the power in the legs explodes and the frog is hurtled into space, seemingly just hoping for a soft landing.

I have seen these frogs leap as much as a metre, far greater than I remember UK frogs jumping when I was a kid.

This frog was settled on a broad leaf about 20 feet above the stream, so a fair amount of climbing was involved to reach this perch. I have also seen these frogs occupy the same perch for many days.

This is a fairly common frog from my observations, yet I failed to even find an image on Google and the FOBI website of Indonesian animals came up blank too. There is a white lipped frog that was fairly close, but all the images that I found were green frogs. But Paladian nailed it for me.

I can tell it is a tree frog by the pads on its toes which give the frog incredible adhesion. The fact that it was found halfway up a tree is a good clue too.

These frogs are also capable of changing color, from a patterned appearance in the night, to the above plain appearance in the day. This also accounts for many of my unidentified images in my frog folder.

Dave