Three-Toed Toadlets: Brachycephalidae

In the dry season of the year, these frogs find shelter under logs or beneath piles of leaves on the ground. They become active when the rainy season comes and wander about on land during the daytime. They typically walk rather than hop, using their thin front legs and longer hind legs to crawl among leaves on the forest floor. The males set up and defend territories against other males. A male calls to keep intruding males away, but if that does not work, he may begin wrestling with the other male and try to push him out of the area.

Scientists have not done careful studies of all six species, but they think that they probably all reproduce in the same general way. In the breeding period, which also takes place during the rainy season, the males call from their territories on land. The call of the pumpkin toadlet and the southern three-toed toadlet is a buzzy sound. The females hear the calls and approach the males. When a female comes close, a male will climb onto her back and use his front legs to hold onto her in front of her hind legs. The male frog, at least among the pumpkin toadlets, then scoots forward until he is hanging onto her body near her front legs. This type of piggyback grasp is called amplexus (am-PLEK-sus). Once the male is in the right position, the female lays her eggs, which are quite big compared to the size of the frog. She lays them on leaves or sometimes under a log. Because her eggs are so large, the female only has a few eggs. A female pumpkin toadlet, for example, lays five or fewer eggs, each of them 0.2 inches (5.1 to 5.3 millimeters) in diameter. The toadlet that is known by its scientific name Brachycephalus didactyla lays only one egg per clutch. Instead of hatching into tadpoles as happens in many other species of frogs, three-toed toadlet eggs hatch directly into baby toadlets, sometimes with a tiny bit of tail that disappears shortly. Pumpkin toadlets hatch 64 days after the female laid the eggs.