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Spotted-thighed frog facts for kids

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Spotted-thighed frog
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Genus:
Ranoidea (genus)
Species:
cyclorhynchus
Synonyms
  • Litoria cyclorhyncha (Boulenger, 1882)
  • Litoria punctata (Duméril, 1853)
  • Litoria marmorata (Duméril, 1853)
  • Hyla hyposticta (Cope, 1866)
  • Hyla dimolops (Cope, 1866)
  • Hyla thyposticta (Cope, 1870)
  • Hyla aurea var. cyclorhynchus (Boulenger, 1882)
  • Litoria punctata (Duméril, 1853)
  • Hyla cyclorhynchus (Parker, 1938)
  • Litoria cyclorhynchus (Tyler, 1971)
  • Ranoidea cyclorhyncha (Wells and Wellington, 1985)
  • Litoria cyclorhyncha (Barker, Grigg, and Tyler, 1995)
  • Dryopsophus cyclorhynchus (Duellman, Marion, and Hedges, 2016)
  • Ranoidea cyclorhynchus (Dubois and Frétey, 2016)

The spotted-thighed frog or spotted-thighed tree frog (Litoria cyclorhyncha) is a tree frog from southwestern Australia.

Spotted-thighed frogs are dark green or brown with yellow spots on their backs. They have bright yellow spots on their legs. It looks like its relative, the motorbike frog.

By 2020, the spotted-thighed frog had moved to southern Australia, where it is an invasive specie. Humans carried the spotted-thighed frog to southern Australia by accident. People have seen spotted-thighed frogs in Streaky Bay, the Eyre Peninsula and at the airport in Adelaide.

Scientists say the spotted-thighed frog is dangerous to the environment because can eat many different kinds of food, even mice and other frogs. This means it can kill the frogs that usually live in South Australia, either by eating all their food or by eating the frogs themselves.

According to ecologist Christine Taylor, "This frog is an indiscriminate eating machine that will devour just about anything it can fit into its mouth."

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