Southern Cricket Frog
Scientific name: Acris gryllus
These very small, bumpy frogs have a distinct Y-shaped pattern on their backs. Their call is similar to a cricket. They are found throughout most of Florida and look very similar to the northern cricket frogs that only live in the Florida Panhandle.
Appearance
Very small and warty, usually .5 to 1.5 inches long. Coloring is gray and tan to green or brown, with patches of yellow, green or black. They often have a noticeable Y-shaped color pattern on their back in a distinct tan, green or red-brown.
Special: There are two dark stripes the length of the backs of their legs. If it has only one stripe, it is a Northern cricket frog! Also, their snouts are a little more pointed.
Behavior
Southern cricket frogs live in and around almost any freshwater habitat from swamps and wetlands, to ponds and man-made drainage canals. Although they generally live around these breeding habitats, they are sometimes found upland in drier habitats, but being aquatic, they return to water to mate and reproduce.
Sound
Southern Cricket Frog
Southern Cricket Frog Chorus
Food
Insectivores. They eat mainly flies, spiders, beetles and other small insects.
Habitat & Range
- Mainly the southeastern United States (west to the Mississippi River and north into Virginia)
- Florida: Statewide, except the Keys. Native.
- They are aquatic so live in and around freshwater habitats, but they have been found in uplands away from water, possibly looking for new breeding sites.
Notable
Southern cricket frogs are abundant in Florida and are very similar to Northern cricket frogs, which are only found in the western Florida Panhandle. Southern cricket frogs have more rounded snouts, and have two dark stripes down the backs of their thighs, rather than the one stripe found on the Northern cricket frog.
More info
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