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''Phyllomedusa bicolor'', the giant leaf frog, bicolor tree-frog, giant monkey frog, or waxy-monkey treefrog, is a species of leaf frog. It can be found in the
Amazon basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributary, tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries ...
of
Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
, Colombia ( Amazonas),
Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...
, and Peru, and can also be found in the Guianan Region of
Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
and
the Guianas The Guianas, also spelled Guyanas or Guayanas, are a geographical region in north-eastern South America. Strictly, the term refers to the three Guianas: Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, formerly British, Dutch, and French Guiana respectiv ...
, and in
Cerrado The Cerrado () is a vast ecoregion of Tropics, tropical savanna in central Brazil, being present in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Maranhão, Piauí, Bahia, Minas Gerais, São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Paraná ...
of the state of
Maranhão Maranhão () is a States of Brazil, state in Brazil. Located in the country's Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region, it has a population of about 7 million and an area of and it is divided into 217 municipalities. Clockwise from north, it ...
in
Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
.


Description

Males measure and females in snout–vent length. The dorsum is lime green whereas the belly is white to yellow-white or cream. Lower lips, chest and front legs bear sparse white spots with dark frames; these are more dense on the flanks and hind legs. Fingers are transparent brown and have large, green adhesive discs. There is a prominent gland extending from behind each eye over the tympanum. The iris is dark gray.


Distribution and habitat

It is found throughout the
Amazon Rainforest The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...
in Bolivia, the Guianas, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, and Peru. This frog has been found in gallery forest.


Ecology and behaviour

The giant leaf frog is a nocturnal, arboreal frog. Males call from trees in tropical humid forests. Males fight each other for mating rights by using their heads to attempt to separate another male who is attached to a female. Males fend off rivals using a series of aggressive calls and use their hind legs to push away the rival. During mating season, males may be targeted more by predators as the fights between males are very vocal and can be easily heard by predators. However, to combat this, giant leaf frogs produce peptides in their skin that serves as a chemical defence. Giant leaf frogs reproduce like most frog species through amplexus, where the male climbs onto the female's back to fertilize the eggs. The female and male construct a leaf-nest above forest pools, where the eggs are laid in a gelatinous mass of about 70 cm above the water. The eggs hatch from these nests in approximately 14 days, and the
tadpole A tadpole or polliwog (also spelled pollywog) is the Larva, larval stage in the biological life cycle of an amphibian. Most tadpoles are fully Aquatic animal, aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial animal, ...
s fall into the water, where they continue the development into adult frogs. Peak reproduction occurs during the rainy season. Eggs of the giant leaf frog are heavily predated and have a predation rate of up to 61%. Species that prey on the eggs include
rove beetles The rove beetles are a family (Staphylinidae) of beetles, primarily distinguished by their short elytra (wing covers) that typically leave more than half of their abdominal segments exposed. With over 66,000 species in thousands of genera, the g ...
, phorid flies, mammals – specifically
capuchin monkeys The capuchin monkeys () are New World monkeys of the subfamily Cebinae. They are readily identified as the " organ grinder" monkey, and have been used in many movies and television shows. The range of capuchin monkeys includes some tropical fores ...
– and other predators, such as snakes. The eggs are predated because they are source of protein for predators.


Conservation

The
IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...
endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...
database lists them in the "
Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...
" category, in view of their current wide distribution and large population.


Medicinal use

The skin secretion of the giant leaf frog is known as Vacina do sapo (frog vaccine) and contains the
opioid peptide Opioid peptides or opiate peptides are peptides that bind to opioid receptors in the brain; opiates and opioids mimic the effect of these peptides. Such peptides may be produced by the body itself, for example endorphins. The effects of these p ...
s
deltorphin Deltorphin, also known as deltorphin A and dermenkephalin, is a naturally occurring, exogenous opioid heptapeptide and thus, exorphin, with the amino acid sequence Tyr-D-Met-Phe-His-Leu-Met-Asp-NH2. Along with the other deltorphins (such as ...
, deltorphin I, deltorphin II and dermorphin. The secretion, known as ''Kambo'' or ''Sapo'', has seen increasing popularity in cleansing rituals, where it induces intense vomiting.


References


External links


Erowid -> ''Phyllomedusa bicolor'' vault

Frog secretions and hunting magic in the upper Amazon
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2697105 bicolor Fauna of the Amazon