A medium-sized species of frog reaching up to 4.5 cm in body length. It has a brown or grey-brown back, with dark brown mottling. The lips are white, with a series of grey vertical bars. The belly is white. The pupil is horizontal and the iris is light brown. The groin is yellow, and the backs of the thighs are grey, with several yellow spots. Fingers are unwebbed and toes are nearly fully webbed, both with large discs.
Eggs are laid as small clusters that sink to the bottom of rock pools. Tadpoles can reach a total length of up to nearly 5 cm, and are pale gold in colour, with or without brown specks or mottling. They often remain on the bottom of water bodies, and take around two months to develop into frogs. Breeds during summer in the wet season.
Looks very similar to the many other rocket frog species in its distribution. Looks most similar to Litoria axillaris and Litoria staccato, but has a different call to both, and lacks the dark brown stripe from the tip of the snout to the arm as present in Litoria staccato, and lacks two dark brown longitudinal back stripes as present in Litoria axillaris.
Photo: Stephen Mahony
Photo: Stephen Mahony
Photo: Ryan Francis
By: Paul Doughty
By: Annette Laird
Found in the Kimberley Region of WA, Top End of the NT, and far northwestern QLD.