Common Name: Green Paddy Frog, Red-eared Copper-backed Frog, Green-backed Frog, Green Lotus Frog, Green Grass Frog, and Common Green Frog
Scientific Name: Hylarana erythraea
Family: Ranidae – True Frog family
Locations: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam
Introduced Locations: Indonesia – Papua regions and Philippines
Female Size: 2.0 – 3.0 inches (50 – 78 mm)
Male Size: 1.2 – 1.8 inches (30 – 48 mm)
The Green Paddy Frog is often found floating on vegetation or on the banks in ponds, rice fields, ditches, marshes, and streams. The frog is known for their white stripes that run down the sides of their body as well as their red tympanum (ear). The frogs breed all year long and lay eggs in water that hatch into tadpoles.
Like most green colored frogs, the Green Paddy Frog can be blue in color. The coloration arises from the lack of xanthophores in their skin chromatophores. Skin chromatophores determine the color of the frog and has 3 layers: xanthophores, iridophores, and melanophores. Xanthopores contain yellow pigments, iridophores are responsible for blue color. The combo makes a green color but without the xanthopores, the frogs appear blue.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List assess the Green Paddy Frog as Least Concern for Extinction. They have a large range and are pretty common. Their range is even expanding thanks to the frogs being introduced to other islands outside their native range. Also, the range used to be even larger before, including more of India, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Then, a study determined that certain frogs were a new species and the frogs from Bangladesh, Nepal, and parts of India were named as Theobald’s Ranid Frog (Hylarana tytleri).