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snottiegobble starts with ...
Found this frog sitting quietly on the edge of one of my small ponds! It was about 7cms, has the cream stripe of Western Banjos, but otherwise dull coloured compared to other photos of them. Will know soon enough in June if we get "Duelling Banjos" !
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Time: 18th March 2012 2:19pm

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Mike says...
SG it is not a banjo frog which is in the genus Limnodynates but a 'motorbike frog' Litoria moorei, a divergent treefrog in the Litoria aurea complex.Its call is not a a hollow 'boink' of the banjo frog.

Time: 18th March 2012 2:38pm

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Mike says...
SG it is surprising how similar frogs are in different parts of Australia.Litoria alboguttata here looks just like your Litoria moorei and the northern banjo frog Limnodynastes terrareginae here looks just like your western banjo frog, Limnodynastes dorsalis over there.

Time: 18th March 2012 2:50pm

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snottiegobble says...
Thanks Mike, I did hear a motorbike frog early spring so it was the first frog I checked out in 'FROGWATCH' but mine didnt have any green on its back. Having now gone back to the description I believe you are spot on nevertheless! So its a qang of bikies in my backyard to look forward this winter?? :-)

Time: 18th March 2012 2:52pm

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Mike says...
SG in your neck of the woods there should be 4 or 5 litorias,a couple of limnos,a couple of uperoleas and a couple of crinias or their relatives.My usual frog ensemble have had a gutful of the rain and closed shop.

Time: 18th March 2012 3:30pm

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snottiegobble says...
Mike, I am thrilled that someone on this forum really knows about amphibians & takes an active interest in them. Pity we cant really compare notes though!
I presume cane toads are having quite a disastrous effect on your smaller wildlife?

Time: 18th March 2012 4:14pm

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Mike says...
Cane Toads have had no lasting influence on any species in NQ since they were introduced.They are competitors rather than predators of native amphibians and have naturalised.On the frontier of their spread they depress predator abundances for years before they spring back and learn to eat toads.
I have worked with frogs quite a bit over the years.

Time: 18th March 2012 4:21pm

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Xiem says...
"Naturalised"? Do you mean they have adapted to Australian conditions? Didn't we all know that? I would like to see them all gotten rid of. Isn't some professor at the Queensland university working on a program to alter their genes so that they all become "daughterless"? I wish him the utmost success.

Time: 18th March 2012 4:36pm

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Mike says...
Xiem it might be Marc Hero and alot of people are working on toads but controls are unlikely.Naturalised means that they become almost like natives.The populations reduce drastically (I see 1 or 2 a year around my place),they become more disease prone (eg bohle iridivirus),water rats,white-tailed rates,some raptors,FW turtles,crays and a few other species start eating them or parts of them.After this species that declined because of them like northern quolls and goannas return to normal populations as happened in NQ.No species became extinct in Australia due to toads.

Time: 18th March 2012 4:50pm

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MaryT says...
Thanks Mike. It's reassuring to hear what you are saying about cane toads. They had me worried.

Time: 18th March 2012 5:13pm

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Mike says...
Yes Mary it is surprising how apalling environmental journalism is in Australia so many people don't have a good grasp of the issues.Alot of the important stuff isn't newsworthy,explained properly or has political/interest group spin attached.
Oh yeah toads, they also diminish in body size and leg length in long established populations.Keelback snakes swallow young ones like smarties.

Time: 18th March 2012 5:22pm

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Mike says...
It sure looks like a keelback, in spite of the resolution not being sharp enough to be sure, and they have a foul smell when you handle them like that.

Time: 18th March 2012 5:46pm

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Julie says...
I used to have quite a few motorbike frogs in and around my pond. Then, in one winter, I found three dead, and haven't seen them since.

Until a couple of weeks ago, when I heard the (loud!) familiar noise through the windows at night.

They're back!

Time: 18th March 2012 11:18pm

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snottiegobble says...
That is good news Mike! We are accustomed down here to hearing about cars skidding all over the place after running over plagues of advancing cane toads!!
Julie its a worry about what killed your original frogs, but glad that they have re-established!

Time: 19th March 2012 12:19am

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snottiegobble says...
This handsome large wasp flies around my ponds in hot weather & often settles for a drink. It is quite intolerant of other wasps & bees that also stop for a drink & buzzes them until they leave ( usually very quickly). Locals call these wasps, hornets which I know is incorrect due to their solitary existence.
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Time: 19th March 2012 12:49am

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amanda says...
They do such a lot of good work don't they SG.
When I put that red loam down in the veg patch last week I must have had all my wasps come and visit me and check out the new "clay" for their mud egg-nests.. :)

I had to stand well back when I watered it too!?

Time: 19th March 2012 8:01pm

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snottiegobble says...
Amanda, we have heaps of the usual paper wasps that visit ( 2 varieties) about the size of honey bees, but that wasp is easily 4cm. There is very little written about WA entomology with illustrations & as a newbee I find it frustrating! Nothing in the library chain worth borrowing!

Time: 20th March 2012 1:57am

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amanda says...
They get bigger SG! I haven't seen the giant ones this far north yet - but down in Mundijong 6-8cm was not unusual - eek! A bit intimidating ;)

I can't help u much with info either there...I have lots of types of wasps that are all black also, and seem solitary too, don't know anythign about them either but they love the eucalypt flowers..

Time: 20th March 2012 10:12am

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