MADAGASCAR REED FROG
This tiny frog was found quite comfortable inside a yellow flower smaller than the size of my hand in the hedge of the airport while I waited for a plane that never arrived. This was due to the Tsunami that hit Thailand and hence I had plenty of time on my hands to peer into countless flowers looking for insects. The frog was perfectly camouflaged to imitate the colour of the flower, no doubt waiting for some sort of insect to pollenate the flower and become a frog snack. One can get a sense of scale by the drop of water above the frog to the right.
Reed Frog - Heterixalus
A small Heterixalus back is whitish with small black spots. Colour at night yellowish-brown, during the day bright white.
A black streak runs from nostril to eye. Heterixalus is a species of frog in the Hyperoliidae family endemic to Madagascar. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, swamps, freshwater marshes, and intermittent freshwater marshes, arable land, urban areas, heavily degraded former forests, ponds, irrigated land, and seasonally flooded agricultural land which occurs in central eastern Madagascar. Snout vent length 23mm, head width 8mm; eye diameter 3.1mm.
Nikon D70 Nikkor 105mm F2.8 Macro, F20 @ 1/50th sec, ISO 200
Taken by hand in the hedge at Maroantsetra airport in Madagascar.
Photograph by Andrew Woodburn