Species details
Litoria ewingii (Brown Tree Frog)
Family: HYLIDAE
Size range: They are 28 to 45 mm long.
Regions: South East
Description: The back of the body varies from cream, beige, grey to light copper brown, with some individuals having varying amounts of lime green. A darker band usually extends along the back from the eyes to the vent. Brown Tree Frogs are moderately robust, medium sized frogs with a broad head and rounded snout. There is also a brown, grey or silver stripe from the snout through the eye, fading along the sides of the body. A cream stripe runs below the eye to the shoulder. The back of the thighs are orange-yellow, usually unpatterned but sometimes with scattered black spots, flecks or lines. Their fingers are free of webbing and their toes are half webbed. Breeding males may have a throat sac and a nuptial pad on the thumb (nuptial pads are skin spines that occur during the breeding season). The tympanum, or ear, is smaller than the eye and partly hidden by an overhanging fold of skin..
Habitat: In South Australia, the Brown Tree Frog is restricted to the South East but it is distributed more widely in Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania.
Call description: Their call is a fast 'creeee cree cre cree cree' of 4 to 22 pulsed notes.
Breeding behaviour: Brown Tree Frogs form large breeding aggregations around water bodies. They deposit their eggs in small clumps attached to submerged vegetation. The tadpoles are nearly transparent with a couple of pigmented bands along the body.
Interesting facts: Brown Tree Frogs (Litoria ewingii) have been considered a widespread species, with a distribution that includes much of southern South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania. However, a research paper published in Feb 2024 has highlighted differences in physical characteristics, genetics and call structure which has resulted in the species being split into 3. As a result, their distribution in South Australia now only includes the South East. In other parts of South Australia we now have the Kangaroo Island Tree Frog and the South Australian Tree Frog.
