Natal Spiny Reed Frog

A small Afrixalus (males to 20 mm, females to 25 mm) from open vegetation in coastal KwaZulu/Natal, South Africa. Voice a buzzing. Dorsum dark with a pair of broad light dorsolateral bands from eye to groin. The pattern is rather constant. Black asperities on back with a concentration on the head and the bulbous snout. Ventrum whitish, gular disc dark yellow. Sympatric with A. delicatus, which has a pointed snout without black asperities. Subspecies. – Pickersgill has established a subspecies, A. s. intermedius, for what was formerly regarded as the more north-easterly populations of A. knysnae. This form is intermediate between A. knysnae and A. s. spinifrons in most characters and it would seem as if a distinction between them at species level is unnecessary. This account was taken from "Treefrogs of Africa" by Arne Schiøtz with kind permission from Edition Chimaira (http://www.chimaira.de/) publishers, Frankfurt am Main.

KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape Coast, South Africa.

Males call from emergent vegetation, often favouring plants with long leaves suitable for nest construction. High density choruses are common. The voice is a short zip on a rising note and a long buzzing (up to 5.2 sec) with a frequency-intensity maximum at about 4000 cps, and a rate of about 30 per second. The eggs are placed in a glued leaf above or below water with a clutch size of 10 to 50. The tadpoles are up to 32 mm in length with a tooth formula of 0/0.