Edible bullfrog
The edible bullfrog (Pyxicephalus edulis), also known as the pixie frog, lesser bullfrog or Peter's bullfrog, is a large-bodied African species of frog in the family Pyxicephalidae. Description The edible bullfrog is a large bodied frog in which the males typically reach in snout–to–vent length and the females . Exceptionally large males may even reach , although the species does not approach the sizes attained by the related African bullfrog (P. adspersus). The females of the edible bullfrog are much less bulky than the males and typically reach just half of the weight of the males. There are two tooth like structures in the lower jaw of the broad mouth bears which point upwards. The skin of the edible bullfrog has slight, rather rounded warts. It has short lateral ridges which never stretch all the way from the head to the end of the body, their form changes considerably as the frog grows. The young frogs are quite sturdy and look almost plump but the adults show dorsoventral flattening. As the frogs grow their eyes become more centrally placed, and the eyes of adults are very protruding. They show a distinct tympanum, which is large and oval in shape. The front feet are unwebbed but the hind feet are webbed. The backs of adult animals is more or less uniform yellow green to drab olive green with the males tending to be greener than the more olive brown females. The females may show a pale stripe along the backbone, light lines on the ridges and warts, these are less common in males. The newly metamorphosed young often have a bright, light green stripe along the middle of the back, with gold-brown speckles and black markings on their dark green skin and the lips and extremities where they form black bars. The lower half of the body is uniformly white or cream, although the male has a dark yellow throat. Voice A short, deep "whoop" call which lasts from 0.11 to 0.29 sec, and is made at irregular intervals. Distribution The edible bullfrog is found in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Chad, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe; but there is some confusion due to misidentification with similar closely related species such as African bullfrog Pyxicephalus adspersus. Habitat Flooded grasslands, in northern Cameroon it seems to prefer open marshy areas. While elsewhere flooded meadows and ditches are recorded. Edible bullfrogs show a preference for clay or sand substrates. Biology The edible bullfrog spends approximately 10 months of the year in aestivation beneath the surface of the soil, only emerging to breed in numbers if sufficiently heavy rain, i.e. more than , falls within a short period. After which male edible bullfrogs call on the flooded grassland and from any small, temporary pools such as included roadside ditches, shallow excavations where the water is shallow, less than in depth and had flooded vegetation. Breeding appears to occur during the day and breeding activity and calling had decreased substantially