New Paper on Glass Frog Behavior Published

Just a few days ago, a paper came out in the journal Phyllomedusa by myself and former student Andrew Georgiadis (COW class of 2011). This paper, based in part on Andrew’s undergraduate thesis, describes parental care in male glass frogs (Hyalinobatrachium orientale) from the island of Tobago in the Caribbean.

What Andrew and I found was that males were often in direct contact with eggs on leaves overhanging streams. This seems likely to be an example of parental care as the males may increase the survival of their offspring by providing this care. Also, we found that developing embryos in the egg masses on the leaves will explosively hatch out of their egg capsules when prodded with foreceps or a stick. These “exploding embryos” can launch themselves up to 36 times their own body length! Stay tuned for future studies of these interesting behaviors in this species.

Photos by RML.