Adults. Males to 48 mm, females to 69 mm. Back is mostly smooth and brown or reddish-brown, sometimes with darker patches. Often, a thick black stripe extends from the tip of the snout, through the eye and above the dark tympanum (ear drum) to the base of the arm, then breaks up into small patches as it reaches the side. Belly is white and granular (grainy). The pupil is horizontal and the iris is gold in the upper half and dark brown in the lower half. The backs of the thighs and groin may be yellow, pale blue-green, or white, with irregular black spots. Fingers are unwebbed and toes are three-quarters webbed, both with small pads. Females meet this description year-round, but breeding males, which are about 2/3 the size of adult females, may be uniform lemon or mustard yellow, or yellow on the side and limbs only. This species is able to rapidly (less than 5 minutes) change its colour.^4,5,6

Larvae. Tadpoles reach up to 45 mm in length. Body is a streamlined oval and gold-brown in colour with a darker bar across the base of the tail; younger tadpoles have a golden band across the body which fades in later stages. Belly is opaque and shiny silver or gold. Snout is broadly rounded. Iris is mostly golden with darker sides. Tail is shorter than body, arching only slightly and tapering to a rounded or narrowly rounded tip. Fins are mostly transparent with a slight yellowish tinge, often with darker flecks near the top, and muscle is light-coloured with darker patches. Tadpoles metamorphose in summer and autumn, one and a half to three months after hatching.^1,3

Eggs. Several hundred to over 1000 eggs are laid in a single clump attached to bedrock, gravel, or under rocks on the edge of moving water in stream-side pools or on bottom sedimentation in sandy depressions of sand bars. Hatching usually occurs within a week after eggs are laid.¹

Habitat. Inhabits rocky or sandy creeks in rainforest or wet sclerophyll forest, but may be found away from streams, especially in winter, or occasionally around ponds and dams when breeding. Males tend to be found in or near streams, while females are typically encountered in the forest, except when breeding/laying eggs.

Stream

Mount Glorious, QLD

Diet. Feeds on insects and other invertebrates.

Predation & Defence. Likely predators include reptiles, birds, and mammals.

Call is a very soft, barely audible, purr or trill; males lack a vocal sac to amplify the call. Males call from the ground or on rocks in or very near the stream. Though males do not have a loud call with which to attract females, they are able to rapidly change colour, changing from the brown colours typical of females to a bright lemon or mustard yellow in less than five minutes.^4,5,6 Breeding occurs in spring and summer, but males may call from late winter to autumn, peaking October through December.

Least Concern (IUCN Red List 2006)

Listed as Least Concern since it is widely distributed and presumably has a large population, is tolerant of a degree of habitat modification, and is believed unlikely to be declining fast enough to qualify for listing in a more threatened category.⁷

Not Listed nationally (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999)

Least Concern in Queensland (Nature Conservation Act 1992)

1. Anstis, M. (2017). Tadpoles and Frogs of Australia. Second Edition. New Holland Publishers, Sydney.
2. Cogger, H.G. (2018). Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia. Updated 7th Edition. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.
3. FrogID (2020). FrogID. Australian Museum, Sydney. http://www.frogid.net.au/frogs/litoria-wilcoxii. Accessed on 17 August 2020.
4. Kindermann, C. (2017). Behavioural ecology, reproductive biology and colour change physiology in the Stony Creek Frog (Litoria wilcoxii). PhD thesis. Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland.
5. Kindermann, C. & Hero, J.-M. (2016). Rapid dynamic colour change is an intrasexual signal in a lek breeding frog (Litoria wilcoxii). Behavioral Ecology and Sociology 70: 1995-2003.
6. Kindermann, C., Narayan, E.J. & Hero, J.-M. (2014). The neuro-hormonal control of rapid dynamic skin change in an amphibian during amplexus. PLoS ONE 9(12): e114120. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0114120
7. Stuart, S. (2006). Litoria wilcoxii. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2006: e.T61788A12545407. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2006.RLTS.T61788A12545407.en. Downloaded on 18 May 2020.
8. Atlas of Living Australia occurrence download at https://doi.org/10.26197/5e9a2fc401f43 accessed on Sat Apr 18 08:37:47 AEST 2020.