The screaming tree frog (''Litoria quiritatus'') is a species of

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

in the subfamily Pelodryadinae. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to southeastern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, east of the

Great Dividing Range The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills, that runs rough ...

. It ranges from northeastern Victoria to the mid-coast of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, from

Mallacoota Mallacoota is a small town in the East Gippsland region in the state of Victoria, Australia. At the 2016 census, Mallacoota had a population of 1,063. At holiday times, particularly Easter and Christmas, the population increases by about 8,000 ...

north to

Taree Taree is a town on the Mid North Coast, New South Wales, Australia. Taree and nearby Cundletown were settled in 1831 by William Wynter. Since then Taree has grown to a population of 26,381, and is the centre of a significant agricultural distri ...

. This species is the " bleating tree frog" that occurs around

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, and is well known for its very loud call. This species was long confused with the robust bleating tree frog ('' Litoria dentata''), and was thus only described in 2021 despite being a relatively common species found near major population centers. Rowley ''et al'' (2021) distinguished three distinct clades in what was formerly considered a single species (''Litoria dentata''), based on genetic divergence, slight morphological differences, and notable differences in vocalizations; the latter were collected via the FrogID Australia

citizen science Citizen science (CS) (similar to community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring) is scientific research conducted with participation from the public (who are sometimes re ...

project. One of these was the robust bleating tree frog (''L. dentata sensu stricto''), another was the slender bleating tree frog (''L. balatus''), and last was the screaming tree frog (''L. quiritatus''). The screaming tree frog has the longest call out of the three species, lacks a white line along its side, and the male turns yellow during breeding season.

References

Amphibians of New South Wales quiritatus Frogs of Australia Amphibians described in 2021 {{Pelodryadinae-stub