Dryophytes versicolor
(LeConte, 1825)
Union Co., Illinois. May 1986.
This frog is nearly identical to Cope’s Gray Treefrog (Dryophytes chrysoscelis). One difference is buried deep within the cell – versicolor has twice as many chromosomes as chrysocelis. The other difference appears at night, when the frogs call; versicolor’s call is a slow staccato trill, while chrysocelis’ call is a fast staccato trill.
A frog that spends much of the time up in trees and bushes over or near water, coming down at night for water and insects. They can be common in areas without being seen much by humans. The colors and patterns they show vary, but are usually a mimic of tree bark. The males show a yellow flash mark in the ‘pit’ of the hind leg. Down in southern Illinois, the roads can be covered by calling males during the May rains.
Removed from the synonymy of Hyla by Duellman, Marion, and Hedges, 2016, Zootaxa, 4104: 10
My Flickr album for this species is here.
HerpMapper records for this species are here.
