''Leptodactylus fragilis'', known under many common names such as the Mexican white-lipped frog, American white-lipped frog or simply white-lipped frog, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

leptodactylid The southern frogs form the Leptodactylidae, a name that comes from Greek meaning a bird or other animal having slender toes. They are a diverse family of frogs that most likely diverged from other hyloids during the Cretaceous. The family has u ...

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" '' Triadobatrachus'' is ...

. Its distribution ranges from the Lower

Rio Grande Valley The Lower Rio Grande Valley ( es, Valle del Río Grande), commonly known as the Rio Grande Valley or locally as the Valley or RGV, is a region spanning the border of Texas and Mexico located in a floodplain of the Rio Grande near its mouth. The ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

south through

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

and

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

to Colombia and

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in ...

. It is often—wrongly—referred to as ''Leptodactylus labialis'' (Cope, 1878) (or ''Leptodactylus mystaceus labialis'' Shreve, 1957), which is a junior synonym of ''

Leptodactylus mystacinus ''Leptodactylus mystacinus'' is a species of frog in the family Leptodactylidae. It is found in eastern Bolivia and eastwards to Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay and southwards to central Argentina. It is also known as the mustached frog. Descrip ...

''.

Description

Mexican white-lipped frogs are grey-brown in color with brown or black mottling. They have a distinctive white stripe along their upper lip which gives them their name. They grow to in length.

Habitat

Mexican white-lipped frog is a widespread and common species found in a range of habitats, in savanna, grassland, semi-arid lands, and open habitats in humid and dry, lowland and montane tropical forests. It is often seen near water.

Behavior and reproduction

Mexican white-lipped frogs are

nocturnal Nocturnality is an ethology, animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnality, diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have ...

and

carnivorous A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other ...

. During the heat of the day, they bury themselves in loose soil of roadside ditches, irrigated cropland, or

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...

s, and emerge to feed in the evenings.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2720147 fragilis Frogs of North America Frogs of South America Amphibians of Central America Amphibians of Belize Amphibians of Colombia Amphibians of Costa Rica Amphibians of El Salvador Amphibians of Guatemala Amphibians of Honduras Amphibians of Mexico Amphibians of Nicaragua Amphibians of Panama Amphibians of the United States Fauna of the Rio Grande valleys Amphibians of Venezuela Amphibians described in 1877 Taxa named by Paul Brocchi