Happy Valentine's Day!

I would not call myself a romantic guy and I've never paid much attention to Valentine's Day. In addition, the distance to my girlfriend is currently almost 10.000 km. So there is no fancy dinner, candlelight, and... you know what. Nevertheless, I would like to seize the opportunity to show some happy couples. Frog couples.

Smilisca phaeota is a relatively large frog with adult size reaching up to 78 mm (3.1 in). The dark brown patch that starts at the tip of the snout and continues through the eye and the eardrum, along the frog's face, is the reason for their common name: Masked Tree Frog.

This rarely seen Spiny Glass Frog (Teratohyla spinosa) messures only about 2 cm (0.8 in). It is found in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.

In most frog species the males are smaller than the females, because when they mate the female carries the male on its back. This is called Amplexus (Latin "embrace"). The sexual dimorphism is particularly evident in this pair of Chiriqui Robber Frog (Pristimantis cruentus). Remarkable how small the male is in relation to the female

To conclude, I want to show you a cool observation of Red-eyed Tree Frogs (Agalychnis callidryas). The female attaches a clutch of eggs to the underside of a leaf and the male is about to fertilize them.


www.amphibiaweb.org
Leenders, T. 2001 A Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica Zona Tropical
Savage, J. 2002 The Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica