Motorbike Frog

Scientific name: Litoria moorei

Meaning of name:

Litoria may be derived from ‘shore’, ‘strand’ or ‘beach’. Moorei honours John A Moore, an American herpetologist who was a pioneer of Australian frog studies in the 1950s.

Distribution:

South-west of Western Australia from Murchison River to Pallinup River.

Description:

A robust green or brown frog with triangular-shaped head. Both the fingers and toes have discs on the tips, but only the toes have webbing. Up to 74 millimetres long.

Notes:

The call is a low growl broken into several parts, similar to a motorbike changing gears. The eggs are laid in a floating clump attached to surface vegetation.

References:

Frogs of Western Australia. MJ Tyler, LA Smith, RE Johnstone. 1994

Reptiles and Frogs of the Perth Region. Brian Bush, Brad Maryan, Robert Browne-Cooper, David Robinson. 1995

Field Guide to the Frogs of Western Australia. MJ Tyler, P Doughty. 2009

Hear the call at the WA Museum http://museum.wa.gov.au/explore/frogwatch/frogs/motorbike-frog

Atlas of Living Australia https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/cf1b96b7-7175-44d4-8ffe-ad3fc07164e6