Florida's Frogs & Toads
Cricket Frogs (Family Hylidae)
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Northern Cricket Frog
(Acris crepitans)
Northern Cricket Frog (click on small image to view larger)
Photos by Dirk Stevenson (upper image) and Patrick Coin (lower image; courtesy of the Wikimedia Project).
Size:
Usually 0.5 - 1.5 in.
Identification:
Back is grayish tan to brown; skin is warty. Back is marked with patches of yellow, green, or black, often forming a "Y" shaped line. Head is marked with a dark triangle. The hidden surface of the thigh is marked with a dark, lengthwise stripe. Snout is more rounded than that of Southern Cricket Frogs. Digits are tipped with tiny toepads
Breeding:
March to August; eggs laid singly or in small clusters attached to submerged vegetation. Call is like two pebbles clicking together -- gick-gick-gick-gick-gick -- much like the call of the Southern Cricket Frog. To hear frog calls, visit the USGS Frog Call Lookup and select the species you want to hear from the common name drop-down list (be sure to listen to the Northern Cricket Frog--calls of both cricket frogs are grouped together on the same page).
Diet:
Snails, spiders, worms, other small invertebrates (aquatic and terrestrial).
Habitats:
Found in Florida only in the western panhandle, in vegetation on the edges of permanent bodies of water used as breeding sites, and in adjacent habitats such as bottomland and floodplain forests. Breeds in ponds, small lakes, streams, and slow-moving rivers.
Map by Monica E. McGarrity - may be used freely for education.
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