Order: SALIENTA
Family: DISCOGLOSSIDAE
Discoglossus pictus OTTH, 1837
Painted Frog
maltese: Zring
Size: Adults up to 8 cm long (snout to tail).
Colouration: Dorsally, olive-brown with darker light-edged patches; ventrally yellowish-white to greyish.
Notes: Toad-like body with small round spicules scattered on back and sides. Pupils round or triangular with the end pointing downwards. Mouth contains a round non-protrusive tongue adherent by nearly its whole base.
Biology: This species is common in damp areas, however since there is a scarcity of such areas in the Maltese Islands, the distribution of the Painted Frog is rather patchy. In the dry Summer months, the animal aestivates in burrows or restricts itself to pools supplied by underground freshwater streams. The painted Frog can breed whenever freshwater is available for some time. Metamorphosis is rapid, at times taking as little as forty days. Tadpoles have two feeding stages: an early herbivorous phase, and a later carnivorous phase when they feed on freshwater fauna and occasionally each other. Their recorded predators include adult frogs and the Freshwater crab Potamon edulis. The adults are generally insectivorous feeding on a large variety of invertebrates (Savona-Ventura, 1979). They are not adverse to feeding on tadpoles or younger frogs in times of food shortage. They have also been noted to feed on Turkish Geckos. Their recorded predators are varied and include snakes, the weasel, the hedgehog, and the little bittern Irobrychus minutus. Locally, the Painted Frog is known to be parasitized by a fly of the genus Lucilia.
Records: This amphibian species has been recorded from the main islands of the Maltese Archipelago - Malta and Gozo.
