Spring Peeper

Adults: This frog is small (2-3.7 cm), slender and pale (tan, brown, or gray) with slanting dark stripes on the back that usually cross to form an X. A dark line runs across the head between the eyes, and a second line runs from the nostrils through the eye to the tympanum. Their toes have slightly expanded adhesive pads and the toe webbing is reduced or absent.

Larvae: Tadpoles are small, brownish or greenish above with metallic gold flecks on the upper surface, lighter below, with clear or orange-tinted tail fins that have large dark blotches on the margins. They grow to about 3 cm before transformation.

Eggs: Eggs are laid singly or in small clusters, often arranged in loose rows along submerged vegetation.

Distribution: These frogs are found throughout most of eastern North America east of Kansas and south through eastern Texas. They are common to abundant throughout western New York and Pennsylvania, and may persist even in developed areas.

Habitat: They are most abundant in extensive tracts of wet forest, but can be found in oldfields, open marshes, and other habitats. They can often be found hopping through leaf litter or climbing in grass clumps or other vegetation, especially during rainy or wet weather.

Ecology: Usually found above ground in trees, shrubs, and herbaceous vegetation, but are not often encountered except during the breeding season, when tremendous numbers gather around shallow breeding ponds. They eat small arthropods like spiders, mites, pill bugs, ants and beetles. Tadpoles are largly herbivorous, feeding on algae and decaying plant material.

Voice: A soft, birdlike whistle. Sing diurnally from arboreal perches or hidden under leaf litter, and at night from the water's edge or low in vegetation over the water.