Australian green frogs are one of the most popular species of frogs among pets. Its color, polite demeanor, and the fact that it’s a little funny to look at familiar relatives have simply served in a delicious shade of chocolate brown.
Dr. Paul Oliver, the foremost author of the discovery of the new species, first saw the animal, and the first thing to think about it was that its Freddie-esque appearance earned it the name “chocolate frog.” When you look at the cocoa color of this beauty, it is easy to see why. Described by scientists at the Queensland Museum in the Australian Journal of Zoology, the Latin name of the chocolate frog surprised researchers to find an unknown relative of a species of this national and famous tree frog.
Oliver said in a statement, “What’s a little surprising about this discovery is that Australia’s well-known and common green tree frog has long-neglected relatives in New Guinea’s lowland rainforest.” “That’s why we named the new frog Litoria mira because the word Mira means surprise or weird in Latin.” While the L. mira is similar to the chocolate frogs that come out of the confectionery boxes in Harry Potter, you can probably have a bad time getting this sweet baby very close to your mouth.
Frogs don’t have much in their arsenal when it comes to fighting, so many species produce toxic secretions from their skin, especially during stress. The Australian green tree frog (which you can remember from the picture of the roaring snake) is not considered strong enough for humans to take enough risk to handle, they were known to release enough mucus when they insisted on making it. The curious dog is quite sick.
A good indication of the stress of tree frogs is when they scream, something that many frogs are surprisingly good at. It is expected that L. mira is probably widespread in New Guinea, but its discovery took some time due to the somewhat dangerous nature of its preferred habitat.
