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Rhacophorus nigropalmatus, Wallace’s flying frog, is a large green treefrog of Southeast Asia’s rain forests, known for gliding between trees on webbed feet rather than for anything unusual in its call or colour. It ranges across Thailand, Myanmar and Peninsular Malaysia, plus Sumatra (Indonesia) and Borneo (Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia), a spread of lowland and hill rain forest that keeps the species almost entirely off the ground.
Identification
Body length runs about 80-100 mm, with males smaller than females, making it one of the larger members of its genus. The back is bright shiny green and the underside white to pale yellow. Fingers and toes are webbed to the tips, with a fringe of skin running between the limbs that forms the gliding membrane; the upper sides of the toes and the outer webbing are bright yellow, while the bases of the webs and one flank spot on each side are jet black. The eyes are large with horizontal pupils, and the eardrums are also prominent. Young frogs look nothing like the adults: for about a year they are reddish brown with white spots, a pattern that has been read as mimicry of droppings to put off predators, before they mature into the green adult form.
Habitat and range
The species is arboreal, living in trees, palms and bushes in primary and logged rain forest, at elevations of about 210-550 m (700-1800 ft), across the distribution above. It descends from the canopy only to mate and lay eggs, spending the rest of its life well off the forest floor.
Behaviour and breeding
The webbed feet and skin membranes that mark this species out are used to glide sometimes 15 m (50 ft) or more between trees, with oversized toe pads cushioning the landing on a trunk or branch. It feeds mainly on insects, and has been recorded taking toads and small birds; tree-climbing snakes are among its main predators. Breeding follows the bubble-nest pattern typical of the genus: the female whips fluid into a foam nest on branches or foliage above water, the male fertilises the eggs inside it, and the tadpoles develop in the nest until it breaks apart and drops them into the water below to complete their growth.
Conservation
The facts box gives the species’ IUCN category. A range spread across several countries and both primary and logged forest works in the frog’s favour, though its dependence on tall trees for gliding and bubble-nesting ties it to forest that has not been cleared outright.
Similar species
Two related gliders overlap parts of its range and are the usual source of confusion. Rhacophorus reinwardtii, the green flying frog, is smaller and shows orange rather than yellow fringes on its webbing, the clearest field mark against R. nigropalmatus. Rhacophorus kio is likewise smaller, with the same orange-toned web fringes rather than the black-and-yellow pattern described above.