# Proven Female Calling



## supe22 (May 14, 2007)

Hey guys, something pretty weird is happening with my mossy frogs (Theloderma corticale) tonight and I felt like it was worth sharing. I have been breeding my 3.2 group for nearly 3 years now and have produced hundreds of froglets. I house them together most of the year but seperate them during the winter cooling period and also give the females a break whenever they begin to lay infertile clutches. My males will continue to asualt them to no end and cause some fairly serious injuries during the period when they become less receptive.
Anyway, I seperated the males today and left the females in the normal tank as I always do. I had to pull one male off of one of my females as he was grabbing her by her eye again which had caused some unfortunate damage the first time. Hours after seperating them I heard a call from the females cage and, of course, thought that I had mistakenly moved the wrong frog and left a male in the tank. Upon further investigation, I found my female in the corner of the tank calling loudly and in different tones, much like the males do. She has laid a few eggs on the glass and continues to call. This female has been with me for almost three years and has produced more than 400 offspring but I have never witnessed either of my females making a sound. I feel that it is pretty clear that she had passed the point of no return as far as laying the eggs and needed to release them but I am amazed by the calling. I have heard of only a couple species in which the females call and they are considered note worthy for that reason. I didn't think that the mossies were on that list however and have never witnessed it. Thought that it was worth sharing and would be open to hearing any thoughts on this subject. 
I replaced one of the males into the cage to see what would happen and they appear to be calling to one another and moving closer and closer. I will follow up with what happens and any further developments in case anyone is interested. Hopefully they will amplex and she will lay the eggs that she is holding and all will return to normal. Just not quite sure what to make of the calling. I guess this just goes to show that nature is still full of surprises no matter how long you are working with something. Just when you think you know what you are doing mother nature decides to mess with your head


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## Roadrunner (Mar 6, 2004)

That`s why I won`t sex the adults I have for sale. I have witnessed amplexus in animals that both call and have protrusions that are supposed to be the nuptual pads of males. I can`t figure them out.


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## supe22 (May 14, 2007)

Well, just to update. The female proceeded to lay many eggs all around the cage on her own making noise all the way. The male just simply watched and did not amplex her as I would have expected. She was obviously uncomfortable and in apparent distress and that must be the reason for the noise. I was just not aware that the females of this species had that ability as they don't seem to use it otherwise. I have not heard any release calls as the males have grabbed them by the head, leg, eye, ear or any other body part they can latch onto. They have caused some nasty wounds at times and I would have thought that would have been an appropriate time for a distress call if they were able. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read my lengthy posts on this topic and feel free to ad any relavent info or similar experiences that you may have had with this or other species.
Thanks,
Brent


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## kristy55303 (Apr 27, 2008)

old thread but wanted to add here. i agree with you both. i have two females proven and one male ( two on the way) seen the tads myself bred by a very good friend before pickup. he said the same thing. the males nuptial pads are a bit bigger bt one female is almost non existent and the other in between makiing you feel like it could be a male when its not. I also heard the female clucking to the males whoop whoop tonight, so both do make sounds.  i wont be sexing their babies. i dont think i could! too much similarity and my females happen to be a tad smaller but wider than my male.


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