|
The western spotted frog (''Heleioporus albopunctatus'') is a species of frog in the Myobatrachidae family. It is endemic to Western Australia. Its natural habitats are temperate forests, temperate shrubland, intermittent rivers, freshwater marshes, rocky areas, granite outcrops, arable land, pastureland, open excavations, and canals and ditches. It is threatened by habitat loss. ==Breeding== Heleioporus albopunctatus has terrestrial egg deposition. Males excavate burrows up to 1 m deep in sandy substrates surrounding ephemeral waterbodies, and commence calling in autumn (March/April). Amplexus (mating) occurs in the burrow and females deposit a clutch of eggs embedded in foam, in a chamber at the base of the burrow. Eggs develop to mid-stage tadpoles within the eggs, but final development is dependent on winter rains filling the waterbody and flooding burrows. Tadpoles then hatch and complete development in the pond. Some clutches of eggs have been found to be infested by the larvae of a dipteran fly ''Aphiura breviceps'' and females of this fly may reside in the burrows of this frog where they are presumed to feed on the outer capsules of the eggs.〔 In one study, around 7% of burrows were found to have eggs infested with maggots from this phorid fly and the mean egg clutch size was 391, and on average, only 2.8% of clutches were found to experience some form of egg mortality.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Western spotted frog」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|