Desert TreefrogLitoria pyrina

2025 EDIT - The taxon in these recordings and photos has now been been split off from Litoria rubella and is now known as the Ruddy Treefrog (L. pyrina).   See the new entry for Litoria rubella for a discussion of that split.  In order to correctly identify this old record and add the new species, I will simply rename this record to Litoria pyrina and then create two new records for the species I have recorded.  

The Ruddy Treefrog (Litoria pyrina ) (sensu lato) is a widespread frog across the northern half of Australia.  Although it does occur in the desert areas of the interior as the common name suggests, I have found Litoria rubella to be quite common in the wet tropical areas of northeastern Queensland as well.

Litoria rubella is a funny shaped chubby little treefrog with a head that seems too small for its body.  It is generally drab brownish with a dark stripe on the face.

The call of this species is a dry buzzy trill lasting about 1/2 a second with an upward inflection.  It is quite a loud call and can be heard over the calls of small choruses of other species.

This recording of the individual pictured above was from near Julatten, Queensland.  It was calling from beneath some vegetation on a fencepost next to a flooded roadside ditch.  Although there were several Litoria pyrina at this ditch, none of them were calling from the water or vegetation in the water.  They were calling from fence posts or rocks that had vegetation growing over them.

The following call was being made by a L. pyrina that was calling from a grassy puddle next to a sugar cane field near Mossman, Queensland.

Here's another individual calling from some flooded sugar cane fields near Mossman.  This time the call is being heard over a chorus of Rocket Frogs (Litoria nasuta).

© Chris Harrison 2015 & 2025