Introducing the Vampire Flying Frog

If you decide to title your scientific paper "The Strangest Tadpole," you better have some pretty significant weirdness to back it up. I was not disappointed. Among other strange attributes, this tadpole has fangs - hence its common name, the Vampire Flying Frog.Dr. Jodi Rowley, herpetologist at the Australian Museum, is part of the team that discovered and named these unique creatures (Rhacophorus vampyrus). I asked Dr. Rowley about her discovery and her life studying amphibians.Q: Where and when did you first come upon this species?Dr. Jodi Rowley: I first came across this species in 2008, when my colleagues and I found a single adult in the cloud forests of Bidoup-Nui Ba National Park, in the highlands of southern Vietnam. We had suspicions that it was a previously undescribed species, which were confirmed when we came across several more in 2010. At the same time, we came across a water-filled tree-hole with tiny, black tadpoles inside. They looked a little different to the average tadpole, but it wasn’t until we looked at them under the microscope that we realised how unique they were- particularly their curved, black “fangs”!Q: What makes these tadpoles so strange?Rowley: The tadpoles are elongated and rather “compressed,” but what makes them most obviously unique is their mouthparts. Instead of the usual tadpole mouthparts that are used for rasping or scraping and resemble narrow beaks, they have two curved black “fangs” sticking out of their mouth. They also have a lot of strange internal morphological adaptations.Q: What do you know about the behavior and life history of this species, including the adult frogs?Rowley: The Vampire Flying Frog belongs to a group of Asian frogs in the genus Rhacophorus. These frogs have been labelled “Flying Frogs” because of the webbing between their hands and feet (and sometimes along their sides), which enables the frogs to glide from tree to tree, and from trees to the ground. Vampire Flying Frogs, however, have taken their arboreal life to the extreme- laying their eggs not in pools or streams like most frogs, but in tiny, water-filled tree-holes. Because their tadpoles grow up in rather cramped surroundings, with little food, female Vampire Flying Frogs appear to return to their offspring to deposit unfertilised eggs for them to feed on. Apparently, tadpole “fangs” are very useful for egg-eating! They also have a large mouth gape, and strange gut that probably helps them eat relatively large eggs.Q: How did you become interested in studying frogs?Rowley: I’m fascinated by frogs and other amphibians. Growing up in the city I didn’t get to see a lot of frogs as a child, but once I started spending time in the forest as part of my undergraduate degree (environmental science), I became ‘hooked’! Aside from being intensely interesting to study, and often very beautiful, amphibians are globally in a lot of trouble, and so my overall goal is to contribute towards amphibian conservation.Q: What do you find most exciting or important about your work? Where do you think your research will go from here?Rowley: Exciting moments at work come in many forms- discovering a previously unknown frog species or seeing a rare salamander for the first time are obvious highlights, but highlights occur looking down a microscope in the lab or analysing frog call or molecular data in the office. I’ll be continuing the field, lab and office work next year- with expeditions in search of amphibians already planned for the monsoon season next year.Rowley, J.J.L. , D.T.A. Tran, D.T.T. Le, H.D. Hoang, R. Altig (2012) The strangest tadpole: the oophagous, tree-hole dwelling tadpole of Rhacophorus vampyrus (Anura: Rhacophoridae) from Vietnam. Journal of Natural History 46, 47-48. (Abstract)