SUMMARY
PREVALENCE: Common
ACTIVE PERIOD: Active at night
KEY ID FEATURES: Elongate tubercles on back, dark blotches on body, often with vibrant green, orange or light brown vertebral stripes
SIZE: ~6cm
IUCN: DD - Data Deficient
GALLERY
IMPORTANT: Many frogs have significant variance in coloration and pattern even within the same species. There can also be extreme differences in appearance from juveniles to adults and some species appear very similar in maturity.
DESCRIPTION
In general they are light to dark brown with dark brown or black markings. Some mature individuals may also have green coloration on the dorsum. The paddy frog can be found with different variations of vertebral stripes that run from snout to the cloaca. These stripes can be bright green, light brown or orange in color. In some cases the stripe is very thin and in others it is quite wide. The stripe is normally unbroken but occasionally may have gaps. Unstriped individuals are commonly found as well.
The head is slightly more narrow than the body with pointed snout. Their body is covered in elongate tubercles moderately spaced with small tubercles on the hindlimbs. The forelimbs have faint granules. The dorsum is covered in irregular black or dark brown blotches. Most individuals will have a rough “X” marking between the forelimbs on the back and a “V” marking between the eyes on the top of the head. These markings are often broken by the vertebral stripe when present. Both fore and hindlimbs have dark banding. There are dark blotches on the upper and lower jaw. A skin fold extends from the back of each eye over and behind the typanum and down, terminating at the jaw.
The paddy frog has a light yellow venter that can sometimes be white under the chin. The underside of the hindlimbs are opaque with white spots. Some individuals have dark spots under the chin.
They have four digits on the forelimbs, absent webbing with the first digit proportionally longer. The digits on the hindlimbs are partially webbed.
HABITAT
The paddy frog is a very common species to encounter in Hong Kong and can be found in most habitats with water including streams, ponds, wetlands and reservoirs from mid to low elevation.
MISTAKEN IDENTITY
CAUTION SHOULD TAKEN WHEN INTERACTING WITH AMPHIBIANS: The paddy frog, in its unstriped form can be confused with several other species in Hong Kong. In particular they can appear similar juvenile Chinese bullfrogs. The paddy frog has more high contrast blotches on the fore and hindlimbs than the Chinese bullfrog in most instances. The dark blotches on the paddy frogs body are also often more obvious and high contrast than the Chinese bullfrog. The Chinese bullfrog also has fully webbed hindlimbs as opposed to the partially webbed hindlimbs of the paddy frog. In addition Chinese bullfrogs have elongate tubercles covering the body and hind limbs, where the paddy frog only has similar structures on the body but are absent on the hind limbs. Many paddy frogs also have a high contrast green, orange or light brown vertebral stripe running the length of the dorsum from snout to vent, which never occurs on juvenile Chinese bullfrogs.