The Eleutherodactylus marnockii or the Cliff Chirping Frog is a very small frog is exactly 0.75 to 1.5 inches long.  It's the smallest frog in the US. The colors to identify the Cliff Chirping Frog is dark green and has black on its feet and on most of its head. These colors help them blend into trees and their environment. Their color also helps them blend because it can fit into even smaller places that their predators cannot get in to so they have a better chance of surviving. 
 
The Cliff Chirping Frog eats a diet of flies, wasps, bees, and other small insects. It eats by silently waiting on a rock then it quickly sticks out its tongue and snap it catches you and into its digestive system. The Tongue is able to catch you because it has sticky stuff that enables it to grab.
 
In the summertime, the male frogs call to the female frogs.  Mating occurs in a place with moist soil.  The female will lay up to 8-20 eggs at once. They will hatch in about 17 days. When the eggs hatch, only 14-18 will survive, because they get eaten by fish or other animals in the water.

The Cliff Chirping Frog has many predators but there are three main predators. They are the birds, snakes, and the crocodilians. The three predators are dangerous because they will eat the adults and the larva. This means that there will be less Cliff Chirping Frogs in the world. They are hardly even a mouth full but very tasty.
 
The Cliff Chirping Frog was a very interesting frog to learn about. I learned that it is the smallest frog in the continental U.S., Also that it has a diet of flies, wasps, bees, and other small insects. It also only has three main predators. They are the bird, snake, and the crocodilians. Also they can only lay up to 8-20 eggs but only 14-18 will live. I have learned a lot about and I am still learning more. 

Author: Aurora O. 
Published: 02/2010 

 

Sources: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eleutherodactylus_marnockii.jpg
 
http://amphibiaweb.org/cgi/amphib_query?where-genus=Eleutherodactylus&where-species=marnockii
 
http://amphibiaweb.org/cgi/amphib_query?where-genus=Eleutherodactylus&where-species=marnockii