# Far North Queensland 4 -- Mission Beach, frogs



## moloch05 (Sep 24, 2008)

Many of the nights at Mission Beach were wet and these were good for frogs. Before the frog pics, though, I will include a few more shots of the Mission Beach area:

... rainforest on the surrounding hills:







... distant view of Dunk and the Family Group of islands:






... South Mission Beach area:






... coconut palms and pandanus on the beach:





... fruiting pandanus:






I found most of the frogs in the Lacey Creek area or along the nearby road. Lacey Creek was severly damaged by Cyclone Larry and there still were many fallen trees in the creek:






Here is a Green-eyed Tree Frog (_Litoria genimaculata_), a species that I had never before seen. I think that it is nicely marked and it would blend well with the vegetation.











... cryptic posture:











The following frogs were the most numerous species at the moment. I suppose that they are _Litoria jungguy_ but the males were coloured differently to those further north at Daintree and Cape Tribulation.

males:





















females:















I think that this is another pale female _Litoria jungguy_. It gave me a real surprise when it suddenly leapt from a tree onto my leg.






This frog was calling softly from a palm frond that hung over the creek. I don't know what it is. Any ideas? Is it a particularly dark _Litoria jungguy _or something else?
















One of the most common frogs by call was what I think to be an Ornate Nursery Frog (_Cophixalus ornatus_). These frogs called loudly but they were small and they usually remained hidden at the base of leaves or in cavities on the trunks of trees.







The world's biggest tree frog was here, the Giant or White-lipped Tree Frog (_Litoria infrafrenata_). I only saw two on this visit but many in May a couple of years ago when there was heavier rainfall at night.











... as discovered. This frog was watching the walkway below and was no doubt ready to pounce on anything edible that walked by.






Regards,
David


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## andyscott (Sep 24, 2008)

Very nice pics David,
I was up that way 2 months ago, a little futher up though in the Daintree.
Frogs everywhere.


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## froggyboy86 (Sep 24, 2008)

Great photos again David. I love the genimaculata, they are one of my favourite species. Good effort with the Cophixalus, I have been told they can be very tricky to find. Your unknown frog looks like a dark L. jungguy. It is very tricky telling these apart, unless you happen to carry a portable DNA kit. But generally L. jungguy is distributed from just south of Tully northwards (however I think there are populations as far south as Mackay?). But the behaviour of the frogs is quite different, L. wilcoxi is more terrestrial whereas jungguy you can see in trees and on palms and it is more a rainforest dweller whereas wilcoxi is not that common in rainforests. But the morphological differences between these species arnt that great... 

Hope that helps

Aaron


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## moloch05 (Sep 25, 2008)

Thanks Andy and Aaron.

Andy,
Were you able to take any pics?

Aaron,
Thanks for the L. jungguy/wilcoxi info. The Cophixalus was not easy to find although they are common by call.


Regards,
David


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## caustichumor (Sep 25, 2008)

Great pics and beautifull looking terrain, it's always good to see an abundance of native amphibians..


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## eipper (Sep 26, 2008)

Hi david,

That is not Litoria genimaculata..its Litoria myola.

They are all Jungguy up that way. (Jungguy come down to Eungella)

Cheers,
Scott Eipper


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## reptile32 (Sep 26, 2008)

i love mission beach i was up there last october for our honey moon, im trying to talk the wife into moveing up there , great photos mate cheers Grant


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## moloch05 (Sep 26, 2008)

Very interesting, Scott. I had not heard of that frog before so did a search on the net ... and now I see why. The article that describes the split from Litoria genimaculata was published in 2006. For those, like me, who were unaware of this split, please see this article:

http://www.anu.edu.au/BoZo/Scott/PDF Files/Hoskin PDFS/Hoskin 2007 BJLS.pdf

Identifiaction is easy at Mission Beach ... Only L. myola is found in this area.

Thanks for the info, Scott.

Regards,
David


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## moloch05 (Sep 26, 2008)

Oops,

Looks like I mis-read the map in the article. What the map really shows is the northern and southern populations of L. genimaculata and the isolated population of L. myola from the Kuranda area. Based on that info, then the frogs at Mission Beach are still L. genimaculata.


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## FAY (Sep 26, 2008)

Fantastic pics David..as usual!


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## Joshua VW (Sep 26, 2008)

WOW! Those pictures are just plain awesome! The frogs look Ok too. Just kidding.
The frogs are amazing! I've got to go up there sometime.
What type of camera do you have? The picture quality is amazing.


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## RedEyeGirl (Sep 26, 2008)

Nice pics i love the white lipped tree frog.Mum wants to get a pair now!


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## moloch05 (Sep 27, 2008)

Thanks, all. Joshua, the camera is a Canon 40D.

After reading Scott's replies on this and another forum, I did a little more research about the confusing frog. Hoskin is not clear about the distribution of genimaculata as well. Here is a quote from his report:



> Having described L. myola, do the remaining populations
> of the northern and southern lineages of
> L. genimaculata represent a single species?
> 
> ...




... and another relating to the age old question of what actually constitutes a species:


> Debate continues regarding how to delimit species
> boundaries ...




Thanks for your input, Scott. I now know of _L. myola_.

Regards,
David


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## froggyboy86 (Sep 27, 2008)

Yeah Hoskin's paper on _L. myola_ is confusing, I thought _L. myola_ was restricted to Kuranda and the creeks just north west of Cairns. And there are northern and southern "races" of genimaculata on either side of the distribution for _L. myola_. 

Aaron


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## BROWNS (Sep 27, 2008)

Awesome frog pics from a lovely area,it's a shame a lot of the area has been cleared.I love the white lips,they're an awesome frog but would love to see if anyone has any pics of jungles from that area because the few times I have been there I've only seen scrubbies and unfortunately was a passenger in a car when my friend came around a sharp corner and accidently ran over a massive scrubby from one side of the road to the other and didn't have enough time to stop before running it over.We turned round and it had gone but most likely would not have survived for long.

It's a rare site to see Mission Beach jungles in the wild these days and almost as rare finding someone breeding guaranteed 100% TRUE to locality Mission Beach jungles which are a really nice locality jungle morphs well known for their solid black and being banded in pattern in general and can get quite big being a coastal fringe jungle.It's still a lovely area although being developed more and more for tourism etc as time goes on,

Thanks for the pics they're top quality photos of lovely varieties of frogs the green-eye tree frog and the white lip are my favourites from the pics...cheers!!


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## moloch05 (Sep 27, 2008)

Browns,

I have visited Mission Beach many times but never have seen a live or dead Jungle Carpet Python. I have seen a number of Scrub Pythons:











... and Brown Tree Snakes:






Slaty Grey Snakes and this DOR Keelback:







Regards,
David


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## moloch05 (Sep 27, 2008)

Also, this Black-headed Python (DOR) near Cardwell:





... and another Scrub from Lacey Creek:


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## jaih (Sep 27, 2008)

Great pics, Tje scrubby and brown tree snake are awsome.


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## gelusmuse (Sep 28, 2008)

Beautiful frogs and photos.


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## LullabyLizard (Sep 28, 2008)

Great pics! You always get to go to interesting places!


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## mrmikk (Sep 28, 2008)

Great photo of the little Boiga


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## BROWNS (Sep 28, 2008)

Yeah Moloch the Mission Beach jungle is a rare site to see in the wild these days which is a shame as they can be a spectacular morph of jungle when you see a nice specimen,it's a shame and I'd say from land clearing to a lot of people collecting them for their own collections etc over the years they have certainly become a rare site in the area.I'd say if you did a lot of searching you'd eventually see a few but around the main Mission Beach area which has been getting more developed over time your chances of seeing a jungle are pretty rare and more likely to see a cassowary than a jungle and there doesn't seem to be any lack of scrubbies that's for sure!! I love the pic of the striped one you posted,that would be a nice morph to get going if anyone had any like that in captivity even though I think scrubs belong right where they come from in the wild not in any enclosure,they just don't suit captivity imo.We did some herping not long ago close to Mission and Tully and the amount of scrubbies was unreal as well as plenty of BTS.The slatey greys from what I've seen aren't much fun catching as they ***** all over you as a deterrent lol

The bhp is a shame to see them killed on the roads,I have a pic of a roadkill just out of Bowen I'll try dig up which was a nice red banded adult and the closest I've seen bhp's to where I am which is where the Proserpine carpets come from and just in my own yard there's a spot where the keelbacks are thick as can be and see them constantly,a shame they don't get bigger and take care of more toads and they have a bit of variety in colour too with some being a nice salmon colour with spots.Just for some fun one day a fellow herper and I lifted some old sleepers around a pond I have and we caught 7 keelbacks in no less than 5 minutes (sorry no pics)along with many huge bird eaters that a friend seems to think may be a different species to others of which I have a couple of nice big girls as pets if you would/could call them that?I can get some pics of them.Cardwell Range has a great view at the top and is a beautiful area just a bit south for true jungles but you get screaming blue tree snakes around there.

Getting close to doing a herping trip up North as a friend will then be stuck at home looking after eggs and will try get as many pics as I can.The photos you've posted are all great quality moloch,my photography skills suck compared to your pics and I have a decent camera which makes it worse lol Great pics mate,keep em coming if you have any more,cheers..........


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