Australian Marbled FrogLimnodynastes convexiusculus

The Marbled Frog (Limnodynastes convexiusculus) is a medium-small sized Myobatrachid frog from northern and northeastern Australia north into New Guinea.  It is found along the coast of Queensland up into Carpentaria and over into the top end of the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

Marbled Frog range map derived from the Australian Frog Atlas under Creative Commons License

This frog was fairly common in NE Australia in grassland and open woodland areas and even in flooded areas of sugar cane fields where I first recorded them.  I saw quite a few of them on roads at night.

This Marbled Frog seen below was recorded calling from a small pond next to the road near Lake Mitchell in Queensland.  There were two of them calling here and I walked around the pond several times looking carefully and simply couldn't find them.  Eventually, I figured out exactly where the sound must be coming from and carefully dug down through the vegetation until I finally exposed this frog that had been calling from buried deep under some vegetation.  No wonder he was so tough to find!
Here he is after being "unearthed".

The call of the Marbled Frog is a hollow metallic "ponk" sound.  Here is the call of the two from the pond above, including the one in the photo before he was uncovered.   

Limnodynastes pair from near Mitchell Lake, QLD

The following two Marbled Frogs were recorded from a flooded edge of a sugar cane field near Daintree, Queensland.  (The nasal "waaagh" you hear with them is Litora gracilenta). 

Limnodynastes convexiusculus calls from Daintree, QLD

© Chris Harrison 2014