Transparent frog. Glass Frog (Photo) Glass Frog

16.06.2019

Glass frog, this is not a glass figurine, but quite creature. You look at it from above, from the side, from the front - an ordinary, unremarkable frog. But look below and you will be amazed. The skin on her belly is so transparent that you can see all of her internal organs including small eggs. Although different types the degree of transparency of the skin is different.

In total, this family of frogs has 12 genera, including 60 species. The credit for the discovery of these amphibians belongs to the Spanish zoologist Marcos Jimenez de la Espada (1872, Latin America). This discovery was the beginning of a series of discoveries of new species of frogs of this family. In the 50-70s of the 20th century, frogs living in Central America(Costa Rica and Panama), a little later - in the Andes, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru. Some species live in the areas of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers.

Glass frogs nest on trees in tropical and semi-deciduous forests. Closer to the water, they move only during the breeding season.

Frogs lay their eggs on the leaves of shrubs and trees located above flowing rivers and streams. One species lays its eggs on rocks near waterfalls. After maturation and birth, tadpoles have to jump into the water. A strong current, into whose arms they immediately fall, is not a serious obstacle. Thanks to their powerful tail and low fins, they can easily cope with it.

One type of glass frog with egg laying

Masonry on inside sheet

The choice is so unusual place for laying eggs brings its advantages. The glass frog thus increases the chances of survival, since up to its caviar predatory fish won't get there. Although, when tadpoles enter the water, they can also become easy prey for predators.

Outwardly, the glass frog is somewhat similar to the tree frog from the tree frog family, but it is distinguished by its eyes. For our heroine, they look forward, and for tree frog- in different directions. In addition, in some species of glass frogs, a kind of cartilage is located on the heel.

Its small size, from 3 to 7.5 centimeters, gives the glass frog a certain grace and fragility. Separate parts of the body, such as paws, are almost completely transparent. Back and legs painted green color various shades.

Glass frogs are small

Through the transparent skin on the abdomen, all the internal organs of the frog are visible.

There is a glass frog in the world. Photo of a transparent beauty and a description of her amazing image life - all this in our article.

Glass frogs - no, no, they are not made of glass! These are the real living representatives of the terrestrial fauna. These are amphibians, which scientists refer to the order of anurans. The family that unites these creatures is called glass frogs, and the genus bears exactly the same name.

How many wonders in the world! The main creator of the splendor of our planet can be considered mother nature. She never ceases to amaze with her ingenuity. Here, it would seem, are ordinary frogs - what is so special about them? But even among these creatures there are specimens, at the sight of which one cannot resist admiration.

If you look at the glass frog from above, then it is not much different from the frogs we are used to.

Researchers first described this transparent animal in 1872. Today on our planet there are approximately 60 species of these beauties.

Appearance of a glass frog, why is it remarkable?

The peculiarity of the structure of the abdomen of the animal is such that through the skin you can see all the insides of the animal. It seems that the whole body of the frog seems to be made of colored jelly. That is why the animal got the name "glass", because it is all luminous through and through!

But it is worth seeing her belly - and it immediately becomes clear why this animal was so named!

These beauties grow in length from 3 to 7.5 centimeters - compared to other frogs, they are very small. And the apparent fragility further reduces their size. The paws of the animal have an almost transparent appearance. In some species, they are decorated with a barely noticeable fringe. The color of glass frogs is bluish-green. But sometimes there are also specimens painted in bright green shades. The eyes of a glass frog look straight ahead, and not to the sides, as, for example, in a tree frog.

Where does the glass frog live?

The first glass frogs were discovered by researchers in Ecuador. But, continuing to study these creatures, scientists came to the conclusion that populations of glass frogs live almost throughout the mainland of South America, moreover, their range expanded to the north, reaching Mexico.

How do glass frogs live and behave in nature?

The main activity of these amphibians takes place on trees. They settle in mountain forests. Most of the time they live on land. The need for water proximity arises only during the breeding season. Another feature of the behavior of these animals is the relationship of the sexes and their role in the upbringing of offspring. Perhaps these frogs are a rare exception from the entire animal world, because little frogs, starting from the age of eggs, are looked after by ... males! And female glass frogs seem to evaporate immediately after creating an egg clutch. That's such a sensation! Caring "dads" protect the eggs, and then the young, from predators and other dangers.

Evolution is a thing that seems to be reasonable and logical. Why the frog needs such a bells and whistles - in the form of transparent skin - we can only guess.

Protecting his offspring, the male glass frog can become quite aggressive, even getting into a fight. He will fight to the last! This is such a selfless dad.

What do glass frogs eat?

Like other representatives of the frog "kingdom", these transparent animals feed on small insects.

Reproduction of transparent frogs

As already mentioned, the female takes the most minimal part in breeding offspring. Having laid her eggs, she leaves her future cubs, leaving them in the care of the male. Masonry is located on the leaves of trees or shrubs. The tadpoles that were born have low fins and a massive tail. This feature of the body structure helps them resist the current and move quickly in the water.

In this article, I tried to collect all the information about the biology, taxonomy, keeping and breeding of glass frogs, based on the experience of biologist Brian Kubicki from the Costa Rican Amphibian Research Center.

family of glass frogs ( ) - a group of small nocturnal tree frogs that live along rivers and streams in humid tropical forests South America. The family includes about a hundred species that can be found from the south of Mexico to the north of Argentina and Paraguay.

Glass frogs live in hard-to-reach swampy places that are almost impossible to walk through. Many species of these amphibians are described in last years, and, apparently, we should expect new species in the near future.

Amazing Creatures

Glass frogs got their name because of the transparency of the skin on the abdomen (and in some species also on the back). Most of them are painted light green with small white, yellow, black or blue spots. Glass frogs are miniature - from 2 to 3 centimeters in length. However, some types, such as Centrolene geckoideum from Ecuador reach significantly large sizes.

Centrolene geckoideum is one of the largest glass frogs.

Systematics of glass frogs

In the family initially, only 2 genera were distinguished, described at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century: Centrolenella(where all small species were assigned) and Centrolene(one got here large frog Centrolene geckoideum). In 1991, the classification was revised. Now there are 3 genera in the family: Hyalinobatrachium, Cochranella and Centrolene.

Genus Hyalinobatrachium includes species with white bones and a transparent abdomen. The transparent skin of the abdomen allows you to see the internal organs of the amphibian, such as the heart, intestines and liver. Many species have a white lining that covers most of the digestive system. In addition, in frogs of this genus, you can see a small liver in the form of a ball. Most frogs of other genera have a three-lobed liver. Genus name Hyalinobatrachium translates as "little glassy frog".

Hyalinobatrachium valeroi

Genus Cochranella includes green-boned species that are most clearly visible in the limbs. Representatives of this genus also have a white abdominal lining, due to which only the organs of the lower part of the brochure cavity are visible to us.

Cochranella euknemos

To the genus Centrolene include frogs with green bones and a white ventral plate. Unlike other glass frogs, species of the genus Centrolene on the humerus there is a special outgrowth in the form of a hook, found in males and some females. It is believed that this hook is used in mating or in battles for territory between males. The genus is known in the same way as giant glass frogs, but everything is relative. Giants from can only be called in relation to their miniature relatives from the other two genera.

Centrolene ilex

Glass frog behavior and habitat

Night frogs living along streams. During the day, they hide in damp litter, where they are extremely difficult to find. Although one of the species can still be found during the day. Male reticulated glass frogs ( Hyalinobatrachium valerioi), living in Costa Rica and Ecuador, are distinguished by unusual behavior. They heroically guard the clutches made by the females all day, protecting the eggs from insects and dehydration. Representatives of other species of glass frogs guard their clutches for only the first couple of hours, and, on rare occasions, come to check on them the next evening. What the females do after spawning is unknown.

Male Sachatamia albomaculata with clutch. Atlanta Botanical Garden

Glass frogs feed on small arthropods, active search meal takes place in the evening hours. If it is raining outside, then the frogs are active during the day.

reproductive behavior

Glass frogs breed during the wet season. One night, after a heavy downpour, the male climbs onto a branch hanging over the stream and begins his mating chants.

Males are extremely territorial and do not tolerate the presence of rivals near them at all. They even arrange "duels" for the right to serenades from a chosen position. If one male approaches another less than 10 centimeters, or enters the same leaf of a plant, the male host of the territory interrupts his gentle love song and emits a menacing squeak in the direction of the intruder. If threats don't help, it's time to take action. The male host approaches the "invader" in an attempt to hop on the latter's back, thereby suppressing its morale. Usually, uninvited guest retreats in disgrace, and the winner, having calmed down a little, after a minute or two continues his marriage symphony.

Male glass frog guarding clutch

When the female, fascinated by the gentle song, approaches a few centimeters from the male, he insidiously jumps onto her back with one deft movement and amplexus begins.

Amplexus (amplexus- hug) - sexual behavior in which the male grabs the female with his forelimbs. Hugs last from a couple of seconds to several hours. Amplexus is seen in amphibians and horseshoe crabs. Surely, you have seen how the male frog "rides" on the female. So this is amplexus.

After several hours of passionate embrace, the female glass frog lays 20-30 eggs on a surface in close proximity to the surface of the water. After a couple of weeks, larvae emerge from the eggs. As a rule, the larvae try to hatch on a rainy night, as their chances of survival are greatly increased in muddy water.

In the future, the larvae find a quiet backwater, where they wait for their transformation into frogs, hiding in the detritus at the bottom.

Terrarium

To keep glass frogs, you need a vertical terrarium, with a sufficient amount of snags and plants with flat leaves. The height of the terrarium should be one and a half times the width. Based on the experience of breeders, 2 males and 3 females feel good in a 75x30x35 cm terrarium. But this, I repeat, subject to a sufficient number of leaves and other surfaces. In the terrarium, it is necessary to provide high humidity, normal lighting (so that the plants have enough) and good ventilation.

Glass frogs are very beautiful

Feeding

Miniature glass frogs are excellent hunters. They have excellent 45° upward vision, which allows them to quickly spot their small prey. Seeing the victim, the glass frog rushes at it with its mouth open from a distance of several centimeters.

Glass frogs are good hunters, but they need small food

In nature, these frogs feed on a variety of arthropod trifles; in captivity, Drosophila flies are suitable for feeding. Glass frogs are quite voracious, so you need to ensure a constant supply of food insects, including at night when the frogs are active. You can also feed other soft-bodied arthropods, just make sure they are not poisonous.

Breeding glass frogs

For breeding you need a terrarium with large quantity plants and artificial watercourse. During the breeding season, it is desirable to raise the humidity. It is ideal to simulate the wet season with an automatic sprayer that simulates rain. Females must be provided with abundant food for the normal development of eggs.

Eggs are laid on leaves, glass and other surfaces. When eggs are laid, you have two options. You can leave them alone and let them develop on their own, but you need to constantly make sure that they do not dry out. The second option is to carefully move the clutch to the incubator for more successful hatching. An incubator can be made from a small plastic box where you put the eggs along with the object on which they were deposited. In the container you need to put a small cup of water for moisture. Cover the top of the box with a film, making several holes in it for air access. Spray the eggs every couple of days with a spray bottle.

Glass frogs with masonry

It is very important not to let the eggs dry out. If any of the eggs is affected by a fungus (mold), such an egg should be removed immediately.

Egg development time depends on species and temperature. If everything is done correctly, tadpoles will appear in 7-15 days. Growing glass frog tadpoles is quite difficult, as they are quite demanding on the purity of water from chemical contaminants. It is necessary to imitate a small barrel of a tropical forest stream. To do this, it is best to take filtered water (ideally, a reverse osmosis system) and place it on the bottom of the tank forest floor(moss, foliage, etc.) taken from a clean region. The container should be well lit, but make sure that the temperature in it does not exceed 27°C. If you get completely confused, then it is better for each tadpole to allocate its own jar with 250-500 ml of water. When the water in the container acquires a greenish tint due to microscopic algae breeding in it, the container is ready for tadpoles to colonize.

The larvae are ready to go

This is one of the breeding methods. In my opinion, it is better to try to create a suitable ecosystem so that the tadpoles develop in an aquaterrarium where adult glass frogs live.

After the larvae have entered the stage of metamorphosis (forelimbs have appeared), they need to provide conditions for reaching land. To do this, they need to be settled in a container where there will be half water and half land. It is important to ensure a gentle rise from the water to land.

Hyalinobatrachium aureoguttatum in metamorphosis

The transformation of tadpoles into frogs is the most difficult and crucial stage in all their breeding. Landed glass frogs are only 1 cm long, so they need to provide enough miniature food and make sure they eat it. Therefore, a terrarium for babies should not be made larger than 50x25x30 cm. For the first few days on land, glass frogs do not hunt, feeding on the remains of their tail.

When the babies reach 1.5 cm, they can be kept in an adult terrarium.

Glass frogs are very small

Conclusion

Glass frogs are amazingly beautiful and fragile creatures. Their numbers are threatened by habitat destruction and pollution. environment. It is not easy to get them, I am not sure that anyone in our country keeps them. Therefore, it would be great to learn how to breed them, insuring another species from the threat of extinction. If you know where you can buy a glass frog, please tell me by mail or write in the comments, maybe someone else will be interested.

For those who are not too lazy and read to the end - a video with glass frogs.

A glass frog is not a glass figurine, but a completely living creature. You look at it from above, from the side, from the front - an ordinary, unremarkable frog. But look below and you will be amazed. The skin on her belly is so transparent that you can see all her internal organs, including small eggs. Although the degree of transparency of the skin is different in different species.

(Total 11 photos)

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3. The skin on the abdomen of such a frog resembles glass, because through it you can perfectly see the internal organs of the frog - the liver, heart, gastrointestinal tract, and sometimes even eggs in females. For this reason, the frog was called the glass frog. Apart from the transparent skin on the abdomen, such a frog is quite ordinary.

4. The first mention of the glass frog appeared back in 1872, while the first specimens were caught in Ecuador. Subsequently, scientists found that the habitat of the glass frog is not limited to Ecuador alone, this unusual animal can be found in the northwestern part of South America, in Central America (on the isthmus between North and South America, up to Mexico itself) and in several other areas of South America . In total, this family of frogs has 12 genera, including 60 species. The credit for the discovery of these amphibians belongs to the Spanish zoologist Marcos Jimenez de la Espada (1872, Latin America). This discovery was the beginning of a series of discoveries of new species of frogs of this family. In the 50-70s of the 20th century, frogs living in Central America (Costa Rica and Panama) were described, a little later - in the Andes, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru. Some species live in the areas of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers.

5. However, according to scientists, glass frogs originally lived only in the northwestern part of South America, after which they significantly expanded their habitat. Glass frogs nest on trees in tropical and semi-deciduous forests. Closer to the water, they move only during the breeding season. Frogs lay their eggs on the leaves of shrubs and trees located above flowing rivers and streams. One species lays its eggs on rocks near waterfalls. After maturation and birth, tadpoles have to jump into the water. A strong current, into whose arms they immediately fall, is not a serious obstacle. Thanks to their powerful tail and low fins, they can easily cope with it.

6. The choice of such an unusual place for laying eggs brings its advantages. The glass frog thus increases the chances of survival, since predatory fish will not get to its eggs. Although, when tadpoles enter the water, they can also become easy prey for fish. Outwardly, the glass frog is somewhat similar to the tree frog from the tree frog family, but it is distinguished by its eyes. In our heroine, they look forward, and in the tree frog, they look in different directions. In addition, in some species of glass frogs, a kind of cartilage is located on the heel.

7. Its small size, from 3 to 7.5 centimeters, gives the glass frog a certain grace and fragility. Separate parts of the body, such as paws, are almost completely transparent. The back and legs are painted green in various shades.

We were looking at natural creation. But it turns out there is the work of human hands.

Japanese scientists have developed the new kind- transparent frogs. This allows them to observe the development of internal organs, blood vessels, eggs without dissection.

“You can watch through the skin how organs grow, how cancer arises and develops. You see throughout the life of the same frog how toxins affect its bones, liver and other organs,” says lead researcher Masayuki Sumida, professor at the Institute of Amphibious Biology. State University Hiroshima.
This is relevant now considering that most of The world ambiguously evaluates preparation, fighters for animal rights are especially negative.

At the conference, Masayuki Sumida stated that his group had created the world's first transparent four-legged creature, without taking into account some fish that are naturally transparent.

Scientists have created a new species based on a rare specimen of the Japanese brown frog, Rena japonica, whose back is usually brown or ocher. It has become transparent through the use of recessive genes. Using artificial insemination, Sumida's team crossed two frogs with recessive genes. Their offspring looked normal, stronger genes won. But further crossing led to the appearance of transparent tadpoles. And now, when the tadpole turns into a frog, you see all these global internal changes.
Theoretically, such frogs can exist in nature, but in fact it is impossible to inherit so many recessive genes. Bred transparent frogs can also reproduce by inheriting the feature from their parents. But the next offspring dies, due to the presence of two kinds of recessive genes. Thanks to scientists, artificial insemination they will also be able to breed glowing frogs by injecting a special protein.

However, using the same method for mammals, such as mice, will not give such a "transparent" result, since their skin structure is completely different.

glass frog (lat. Centrolenidae) has a brown-green color, in appearance it does not differ at all from common frog until you see her belly.

Heidi and Hans-Jurgen Koch

The skin on the abdomen of such a frog resembles glass, because through it you can perfectly see the internal organs of the frog - the liver, heart, gastrointestinal tract, and sometimes even eggs in females. For this reason, the frog was called the glass frog. Apart from the transparent skin on the abdomen, such a frog is quite ordinary.

The first mention of the glass frog appeared back in 1872, while the first specimens were caught in Ecuador. Subsequently, scientists found that the habitat of the glass frog is not limited to Ecuador alone, this unusual animal can be found in the northwestern part of South America, in Central America (on the isthmus between North and South America, up to Mexico itself) and in several other areas of South America .

However, according to scientists, glass frogs initially lived only in the northwestern part of South America, after which they significantly expanded their habitat.

PUCE Martin R. Bustamante

In total, 60 species of such species have been recorded in the world so far. transparent frogs. Glass frogs are usually not very large, ranging in size from 3 to 7.5 centimeters. Such frogs live, as a rule, on trees in mountain forests and only during the breeding season reach the water. I must say that some species of glass frogs can also be seen in the rainforests on the coast of the Amazon River.