Long-nosed horned frog
Megophrys nasuta
— Where the name comes from
Megophrys is “great eyebrow”, from méga and ophrýs: above each eye it carries a triangular point of skin, and a third juts from the snout. Nasuta, “large-nosed”, insists on the same thing. Those three points, with the folds of the back, reproduce the veining of a fallen leaf.
— Facts
- Group
- Amphibians · Amphibia
- Order
- Frogs and toads
- Habitat
- Leaf litter of hill rainforest, near streams
- Range
- Borneo, Sumatra, peninsular Malaysia, southern Thailand
- Size
- 7–16 cm, 40–120 g
- Diet
- Spiders, crabs, scorpions, other frogs, rodents
- Lifespan
- 10 years
— Characteristics
- 01
It sits motionless on the litter and waits for prey to pass.
- 02
Its mouth is very wide and lets it swallow prey nearly its own size.
- 03
The tadpoles have a funnel-shaped upward-facing mouth and filter the surface.
— What sets it apart
The tadpoles of this species float head up with their mouths open into a funnel that just breaks the water’s surface, and in that way they collect the film of pollen, bacteria and debris that lies on it: a way of feeding no other tadpole uses, and one that lets them live in forest pools almost devoid of algae. As adults they do exactly the opposite: they sit still on the forest floor and wait for the food to come to them.
