The Arizona treefrog

Long, long, ago and far, far, away I found my first Arizona treefrog, Hyla wrightorum (then Hyla eximia) hopping slowly across a monsoon-swept highway somewhere in the mountains of central Arizona. It was a beautiful example of the green phase and I took many photos. But over time the photos, all slides, were misplaced or defaced and I found myself wanting to see and rephotograph the taxon. Well, monsoon season was again drawing close, so...

The more I thought about it the plainer it became that if I wanted to see this pretty frog once more a trip to wcNM or cAZ would need to be undertaken. Because I knew the area at least a little I chose the Coconimo National Forest as my destination.

Patti thought this to be a spontaneous decision. I didn't. In my mind spontaneity was to hop in the car and with hardly any thought head off to the western "wooly-wags." In this case I had thought about the trip for at least a couple of weeks and actually had a destination in mind before hopping into the car and heading westward. No spontaneity there at all. Merely a long drive. But heck, I was always heading to Texas or California or Idaho, so central Arizona would be a snap.

It seemed that almost as soon as I had made my decision a friend called to inform me the monsoons had started and I was spontaneously in the car heading towards I-40 and then west.

Two days (and twenty two hundred miles) later I was sitting on a stump at the edge of a newly formed pool , being bombarded by fat raindrops, surrounded by woodlands redolent with the scent of spruce and pine and juniper, and listening to the burry quacking of the Arizona form of the mountain treefrog complex. Hmmmph. Spontaneity indeed! The search from start to finish had worked like a well oiled machine.

More photos under the jump...

The eyestripes and spots are a typical pattern of this taxon: It only looks like it's smiling. Insects beware:

Author, photographer, and columnist Richard Bartlett is one of the most prolific writers on herpetological subjects in the 20th century. With hundreds of books and articles to their credit, Richard and his wife Pat have spent over four decades documenting reptiles both in the field and in captivity. For a list of their current titles, please visit their page in our bookstore.