New Jersey Chorus Frogs: Banded, Clicking, Pale-Lipped, Striped Bodies

Summary: New Jersey chorus frogs abide in hardwood, mixed hardwood-pine forests in eastern North America, from New York through the tri-state Delmarva Peninsula.

image of New Jersey chorus frog (Pseudacris kalmi) by Suzanne L. Collins; Virginia DWR, "New Jersey Chorus Frog": Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources @VirginiaDWR, via Twitter March 27, 2015

New Jersey chorus frogs abide in hardwood, mixed hardwood-pine forests in eastern North America, in the northeastern and southeastern two-thirds of New Jersey and tri-state Delmarva Peninsula in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

Extreme southeast Pennsylvania along the northeastern New Jersey border bears New Jersey chorus frog-friendly hardwood and mixed forests with area shallow-water breeding sites and shrub understories. The allied member of the Hylidae (from Greek ύλη, “forest” via Latin Hylas and -ειδής, “-like” via Latin -idae) tree-frog family carries the name Pseudacris kalmi. Francis Harper (Nov. 17, 1886-Nov. 17, 1972) taxonomically dedicated Pseudacris kalmi (from Greek ψευδής, “false” and ἀκρίς “locust”) to Pehr Kalm (March 6, 1716-Nov. 16, 1779).

The Anura (from Greek ἀν-, “not” and οὐρά, “tail” via ανοὐρά) amphibian order member previously entertained subspecies status to upper-coastal plain- and piedmont-existing upland chorus frogs.

New Jersey chorus frog life cycles favor breeding-friendly, fishless, semi-permanent and temporary bogs, ditches, ephemeral and vernal pools, ponds and streams where grassy, sedgy clumps flourish.

January or February through March or April annually guard physically and sexually mature females and males in respective 3- to 4-night and 2- to 3-week groups. Forty-five-millimeter (1.77-inch) diameter masses hold 0.6- to 0.8-millimeter (0.024- to 0.032-inch) diameter ōva (from Latin ōvum, “egg”) cells and 1.2- to 2.0-millimeter (0.057- to 0.079-inch) eggs. One- and 1-plus-year-old, physically and sexually mature females install their 30 to 100 eggs in 8- to 143-egg intervals on the shallow-water stems of aquatic plants.

Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis fungus, fertilizer runoff, globally warmed climate change, nonnative species, toxic pesticides, trematode-induced deformities and ultraviolet radiation jeopardize North American New Jersey chorus frog habitats.

New Jersey chorus frogs know perhaps 2- to 5-year life cycles that knit together 1- to 2-day-long egg and 21- to 28- or 75-day-long tadpole stages.

Gill-breathing, herbivorous (from Latin herba, “grass” and vorō, “I devour”) tadpoles no longer look fish-like when 12- to 14-millimeter (0.47- to 0.55-inch) lengths launch froglet metamorphoses. Predatory aquatic and woodland insects, crayfish, foxes, herons, mink, raccoons, shrews, shrikes, skunks, snakes, spiders and turtles menace New Jersey chorus frogs’ egg, tadpole, frog moments. Ants, beetles, caddisflies, craneflies, crickets, flies, grasshoppers, mites, mosquitoes, moths, pillbugs, sowbugs, spiders, springtails, stinkbugs, termites, wasps and worms nourish adults, not algae-, debris-, diatom-nurtured tadpoles.

North American New Jersey chorus frog habitats offer north-south season-coldest temperatures, Staten Island, New York, through Delmarva, at minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23.3 degrees Celsius).

Boggy, bushy, grassy, herbaceous, marshy, shrubby, swampy, weedy, woody wetlands, flooded pastures, grassy floodplains and seasonal ditches, ponds, pools and streams promote New Jersey chorus frogs.

Lang Elliott, Carl Gerhardt and Carlos Davidson quantify 0.75- to 1.25-inch (1.91- to 3.18-centimeter) snout-vent (excrementary opening) lengths in The Frogs and Toads of North America. Adults reveal light-lined upper lips, one dark band through each side's snout, gold-rimmed dark eye and hind-limb and three back-centered dull, irregular or thick, well-defined stripes. Advertisement calls sound like high-inflected, rising-pitched crrreeeeek clicks with pulse trill rates swifter than non-overlapping, similar, slower boreal, cajun, midland, southern and upland chorus frog advertisements.

Cream-bellied brown-gray-green bodies with banded sides, lined lips and striped backs trill throughout Delmarva's and New Jersey's grass-teeming, pine-thronged North American New Jersey chorus frog habitats.

>range map for New Jersey chorus frog (Pseudacris kalmi): National Amphibian Atlas, Public Domain, via U.S. Geological Survey Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

image of New Jersey chorus frog (Pseudacris kalmi) by Suzanne L. Collins; Virginia DWR, "New Jersey Chorus Frog," @ https://dwr.virginia.gov/wildlife/information/new-jersey-chorus-frog/: Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources @VirginiaDWR, via Twitter March 27, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/VirginiaDWR/status/581430806964518912

range map for New Jersey chorus frog (Pseudacris kalmi): National Amphibian Atlas, Public Domain, via U.S. Geological Survey Patuxent Wildlife Research Center @ https://www.pwrc.usgs.gov:8080/mapserver/naa/

For further information:

Beane, Jeffrey C.; Alvin L. Braswell; Joseph C. Mitchell; William M. Palmer; and Julian R. Harrison III. 2010. "New Jersey Chorus Frog Pseudacris kalmi." Page 139. In: Amphibians and Reptiles of the Carolinas and Virginia. With contributions by Bernard S. Martof and Joseph R. Bailey. Second Edition, Revised and Updated. Chapel Hill NC: The University of North Carolina.

Curtis, Brandon; Bob Hamilton; Don Becker; Brandon Ruhe; and Stephen Staedtler. "New Jersey Chorus Frog." Pa Herps > Pennsylvania Herp Identification Online Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of PA > Frogs & Toads of Pennsylvania.
Available @ https://www.paherps.com/herps/frogs-toads/new_jersey_chorus_frog/

Davenport, L.J. 24 August 2009. "Roland Harper." Encyclopedia of Alabama > Science and Technology > Scientists. Last updated April 26, 2013.
Available @ http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2413

Davenport, Michael J. 2016. "New Jersey Chorus Frog Pseudacris kalmi." Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey > Our Species > Field Guide > New Jersey Endangered and Threatened Species Field Guide.
Available @ http://www.conservewildlifenj.org/species/fieldguide/view/Pseudacris%20kalmi/

Duellman, William E., Ph.D. 2003. "Chorus frog Pseudacris triseriata." Pages 238-239. In: Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd edition. Volume 6, Amphibians, edited by Michael Hutchins, William E. Duellman and Neil Schlager. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group.

Elliott, Lang; Carl Gerhardt; and Carlos Davidson. 2009. "New Jersey Chorus Frog." Pages 90-91. In: The Frogs and Toads of North America: A Comprehensive Guide to Their Identification, Behavior and Calls. Boston MA; New York NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Frost, Darrel. "Pseudacris kalmi Harper, 1955." American Museum of Natural History > Our Research > Vertebrate Zoology > Herpetology > Amphibians Species of the World Database.
Available @ http://research.amnh.org/vz/herpetology/amphibia/index.php//Amphibia/Anura/Hylidae/Acridinae/Pseudacris/Pseudacris-kalmi

Harper, Francis. 1939. "A New Chorus Frog (Pseudacris) From the Eastern United States." Natural History Miscellanea, no. 150 (Nov. 22, 1955): 1-6. Chicago IL: The Chicago Academy of Sciences.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/MiscellaneaN150

IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group. 2022. "New Jersey Chorus Frog: Pseudacris kalmi." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 3.1. p. e..T136134A119000677. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-1.RLTS.T136134A119000677.en. 136134.
Available @ https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/136134/119000677

Menjivar, Stephanie. 20 March 2021. "Pseudacris kalmi (Harper, 1955)." AmphibiaWeb > Browse by Taxa Lists > Browse Alphabetically > Anura (Frogs) > Anura: Pse-Re > Rana sylvatica. Edited by Ann T. Chang 20 March 2021. Berkeley CA: University of California, Berkeley.
Available @ https://amphibiaweb.org/species/6959

"New Jersey Chorus Frog." US Fish & Wildlife Service > Species > Find a Species > Search by scientific/common name.
Available @ https://www.fws.gov/species/new-jersey-chorus-frog-pseudacris-kalmi

"New Jersey Chorus Frog." Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources > Wildlife & Habitat > Wildlife Information > Frogs & Toads. Last updated 23 March 2021.
Available @ https://dwr.virginia.gov/wildlife/information/new-jersey-chorus-frog/

"New Jersey Chorus Frog (Pseudacris kalmi)." Maryland Department of Natural Resources > Maryland Plants and Wildlife > Wildlife > Maryland Wildlife > Maryland's Wildlife Species > Reptiles and Amphibians of Maryland > Discover Maryland's Herps > Frogs > Maryland's Frogs and Toads (Order Anura) > Frogs and Toads > Frog and Toad Anatomy > Treefrogs (Family Hylidae) > New Jersey Chorus Frog (Pseudacris kalmi) > Field Guid to Maryland's Frogs and Toads (Ordere Anura).
Available @ https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/Pages/plants_wildlife/herps/Anura.aspx?FrogToadName=New+Jersey+Chorus+Frog

"New Jersey Chorus Frog (Pseudacris triseriata kalmi)." Fact Sheet adapted from Felbaum, Mitchell, et al. 1995. Endangered and Threatened Species of Pennsylvania. Harrisburg PA: Wild Resource Conservation Fund. Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program.
Available @ https://www.naturalheritage.state.pa.us/factsheets/10854.pdf

"New Jersey Chorus Frog Pseudacris kalmi." Virginia Herpetological Society > Animals > Frogs & Toads > Frogs & Toads of Virginia.
Available @ https://www.virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com/amphibians/frogsandtoads/new-jersey-chorus-frog/new_jersey_chorus_frog.php

Norment, Christopher J. March 2000. "Francis Harper (1886-1972)." Arctic, vol. 53, no. 1 (March 2000): 72-75.
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