This Tiny Frog Is Fierce

The see-through amphibian goes big to protect its eggs.

By Liz Lindqwister September 25, 2024
Photograph by Emanuele Biggi




The verdant rainforests of Costa Rica are home to many species of tiny glass frogs, named for their semi-transparent skin and translucent bellies, which can reveal their organs from underneath. The elusive amphibians pictured here, known commonly as La Palma glass frogs (Hyalinobatrachium valerioi), measure just a couple of centimeters and sport a mottled coat that mimics the lime-green coloration of their leafy surroundings. As arboreal and nocturnal frogs, La Palmas spend most of their lives hopping between trees and disappearing under leaves at night, perfectly camouflaged.

During the mating season, from May to late October, male glass frogs become increasingly territorial as they search for mates, emitting high-pitched squeaks, brays, and other calls to entice females and defend their space. This mating ritual is known as amplexus, Latin for “embrace.”

Photographer Emanuele Biggi captured a male La Palma glass frog mating with a female, grasping her in an intimate embrace and preparing to fertilize her eggs as she lays them. Males often mate with several females in the same location; egg clutches from previous matings sit near the pair on the same leaf. The act of consummation shown in this photo is rarely seen by humans, as these frogs usually lay their clutches in the dead of night and on the underside of leaves that dangle over streams and rivers.

You can easily see their hearts beating or their organs digesting a meal.

Though the glass frogs’ translucence creates a curious visual effect—you can easily see their hearts beating or their organs digesting a meal—this camouflaging characteristic helps to confuse predators in the aftermath of reproduction. After laying about 35 eggs in a single gelatinous clutch on the underside of a leaf, female La Palma glass frogs flee the scene and leave the males to guard and protect up to seven broods at a time, day and night, until the eggs hatch. The frogs’ spotted coloration mimics the pattern of a clutch of eggs, allowing male La Palmas to blend in as they lay their bodies over their frogspawn in a protective and moisture-preserving stance. Any intruders, frog or otherwise, will face a male La Palma’s wrath, as it aggressively attacks and kills other male frogs as well as predatory wasps and ants.

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