Frog

Afrana

Life cycle

The life cycle of a frog involves several stages. Typically adult frogs gather in suitable pools, the first to arive usually being the males. Their croaking may well encourage the females to arrive. A female would wish to avoid arriving at a pond which did not have any males in attendance. Gravid female frogs are actively and persistently sought out by males and many males will often try to attach themselves to a single female but eventually one male will secure possession. Amplexus is the process wherein the male grasps the female while she lays her eggs. At the same time, he fertilizes them with a fluid containing sperm. The eggs are about 2.0 to 2.8 millimetres in diameter and are dark brown and are covered in an outer shell of gelatinous transparent material which swells in contact with water. The female frog lays her eggs in a shallow pond or creek, where they will be sheltered from the current and from predators. The eggs, known as frogspawn hatch into tadpoles. The tadpole stage develops gradually into a froglet, resembling an adult but retaining a vestigial tail. Finally the froglet develops into an adult frog. Typically, tadpoles are herbivores, feeding mostly on algae, whereas juvenile and adult frogs are rather voracious carnivores.

Related Topics:
Amplexus - Egg - Pond - Tadpole - Herbivore - Alga - Carnivore

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Most temperate species of frog reproduce in the period between late autumn to early spring. In the UK most Common Frog populations produce frogspawn in February although there is wide variation in timing. Water temperatures at this time of year are relatively low and typically between four and 10 degrees celsius. Reproducing in these conditions helps the developing tadpoles because dissolved oxygen concentrations in the water are highest at cold temperatures. More importantly, reproducing early in the season ensures that appropriate food is available to the developing frogs at the right time.

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Image:Frogspawn closeup.JPG|Frogspawn

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Image:Tadpoles 10 days.JPG|10 days: Tadpoles

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Image:Frog-Zhe.jpg|8–12 weeks: Froglet

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Image:Green-leopard-frog-in-swamp.jpg|12–16 weeks: Adult frog

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