During our night hikes, we saw many other plants and animals besides the leaf cutter ants, but one group that really stood out was the frogs. Frogs are one of the most important groups of animals in the rainforest, they provide food for many predators including birds, snakes, swarms of army ants, cats such as tigrillos and margays, fish, large arachnids, and even larger frogs. Eggs and tadpoles are even easier prey. Frogs primarily eat insects, although larger ones do eat arachnids, small snakes and small frogs, and these insects are primary vectors for many pathogens. Most frogs are nocturnal which is why they are a big part of the animals we saw during these night hikes.

(Also I forgot to mention that every picture in these blogs was taken on my trip)

One of the most well known frogs is the red-eyed tree frog. The red-eyed tree frog is the frog you see on the cover of every book about amphibians and is very common in the pet trade. They vary in size from 2-6 cm with females being larger than males. The red-eyed tree frog is endemic to Central America. Although this species isn’t endangered, it’s population size is decreasing mostly due to habitat loss from deforestation and poaching for the pet trade. Both of these problems can be remedied since these frogs can be bred in captivity (and are healthier and have a better chance of surviving) and habitats can be conserved.

Another species we saw was the glass frog. Technically the glass frog isn’t an actual species it’s a family of frogs that are characterized by their translucent skin, usually on their stomachs. This feature allows us to see through the skin into the internal organs of some of these frogs. Unfortunately, I was unable to see this but I did see the frogs and they look like Kermit!

We also saw several tree frogs, which is another general name, leaf frogs, and ding frogs. One of these tree frogs was actually near a clutch of eggs on a leaf! We cannot say for certain if these were its eggs or if it was a coincidence that the frog was near it. Frogs that lay eggs near the forest ground usually lay their eggs on a leaf above a stream so that when they hatch, the tadpoles fall into a stream. Others will lay their eggs in the stream itself if the turbidity isn’t too high. In the higher parts of the forest, many frogs will lay their eggs in bromeliads, large plants that collect water in the tops of trees, and the tadpoles spend their entire life in the plant centered ecosystem until they grow legs. Often times, frogs that are this high up in the forest never actually touch the ground!

Ding frogs are tiny frogs that when they call out for mates they produce a “DING” noise that is unforgettable. A significant part of the noises we heard those nights were from ding frogs. Leaf frogs are masters of camouflage. They’re dark brown to match the leaf litter and they have a pointed nose to match the drip-tip of a leaf. We also saw Blue-Jean Strawberry Poison Dart Frogs (see first post for info), but unlike the others, these are diurnal since they don’t need to hide from predators due to their poisonous reputation. We must’ve woken this one up!

Cane toads were also seen throughout the trip. These toads are massive, the largest toad in the world, and are native to Central and South America. They breed easily and because of this are very common in the pet trade despite being hideous! These frogs have become introduced to many islands in the Caribbean and are even a significant problem in Australia, leading to the extinction of several native species of frogs. These toads will eat anything they can fit in their mouth, and they secrete a hallucinogenic chemical on their skin to ward off predators.

The first two nights that I was in the Texas A&M Soltis Center, we went on night hikes. Although I spent the majority of the day traversing the midland forests, when I entered it again at night it was a completely different place. At night the forest comes alive with the calls of hundreds of different species of animals from mammals, to birds, insects, frogs, and of course the disturbances of the humans around you. Hunters prowl the forest under the cover of night, hoping to ambush unaware prey while others call out to mates hundreds of feet away.

One of the first things you see once in the forest are never ending trails of leaf-cutter ants. Leaf-cutter ants live in massive colonies, some of the largest in the world compared to other ant species. These colonies can house over ten million ants and stretch over 1000 square feet in distance on the surface. In order to maintain their colonies these ants will spend all day harvesting leaves. They can climb a vertical trunk over 50 feet in search of the perfect leaf! These ants are unique in that they don’t eat insects or plants, so why do they spend all this time harvesting leaves?

Within the colony, different ants have different roles. The harvester ants will leave the colony and collect leaves, although they do this all day and night, they travel in long habitual columns at night compared to in the day when they are dispersed. Once the leaves are collected and returned to the colony, they are given to other ants that tend to the fungi growing within the colony. These fungi eat specific species of plant leaves which are brought to them by the harvester ants. The fungi are kept in an environment similar to a quarantine room by the gardener ants which are the only ones allowed to tend to the fungi. The fungi is kept in this environment to ensure that pathogens from the outside don’t contaminate them. Another precaution the ants take is that they have evolved a symbiotic relationship with specific bacteria underneath the ant’s mandibles that kill invading pathogens, but doesn’t harm the fungi.

The ants live off of this fungi, which is why it is so important for them. Their colonies are centered around their garden, they even have specific systems in place to regulate the temperature within a tenth of a degree inside the garden! These ants are incredibly important for the neotropical ecosystems. They are a source of food for larger ants that can take down the leaf cutter warrior ants, along with birds, frogs and other insects. They are also incredibly important in controlling the growth of plants, driving plant evolution in many species. This species of ant and its complex array of symbiotic relationships is fascinating to me and something that we should definitely be looking into with regards to its methods of temperature regulation and our goal of a sustainable future.