Details
Rhacophorus nigropalmatus
Wallace's flying frog is a large tree frog of Southeast Asian forests. By spreading its long limbs and webbed feet, it can glide from trees in a controlled fall.
Map: Ecoregions 2017 © RESOLVE (CC BY 4.0) · Natural Earth (PD)
It inhabits lowland rainforest and moist secondary forest in the Indomalayan region. Adults live in the canopy and on branches near water, using forest pools for breeding.
Length is 8-10 cm and weight 25-55 g. It has a bright green body, broad feet, and extensive webbing between fingers and toes, with pale undersides and yellow or black markings.
Nocturnal and mostly solitary, it moves through trees after dark. From high branches it launches into the air and steers with outspread webbing and skin flaps.
A carnivore, it feeds on arboreal insects and other small arthropods. It waits on leaves or branches and springs at prey within reach.
During breeding, adults make foam nests on leaves or branches over water. Tadpoles drop into the pool below and develop there.
It is listed as Least Concern. Because it depends on forest structure, intact canopy, water edges, and small breeding pools remain important.
