Species: Common Frog (Rana temporaria)
Family: True Frogs (RANIDAE)
Category: Amphibians
Location: NW
A. Amphibians
More extensive information on amphibians can be found in a separate blog post.
B. True Frogs (RANIDAE)
The true frogs have smooth, moist skins, large powerful legs, and webbed feet. There are four digits on the front feet and five on the rear feet. They are short-bodied and tailless. Frogs lay eggs in water, and the young go through a tadpole stage before adulthood. Most frogs are carnivorous.
C. Common Frog (Rana temporaria)
The common frog's body is wet and smooth, with a dark patch running from the eye to the armpit, and a pointed nose on its angular head. The body colour is variable. The hind legs are longer than those of toads. The male has a blue chin in the breeding season, and a female's body has small pimples. Frogs move in short jumps. Spawn is laid in a clump, earlier than toads.
Frogs feature in many superstitions and curative rituals, mostly too gruesome to record here. Putting the head of a live frog into a child's mouth is said to cure whooping cough and thrush by its breath. Sucking a frog is also a cure for oral thrush and is somewhat safer than sucking a duck's or goose's bill. Having a smooth skin, the frog was thought able to cure warts if placed on them.
Frogs are symbolic of transformation and re-creation because they arise by change from tadpoles. In several European folk tales a frog is transformed into a handsome prince, and in many cultures the frog is associated with fertility, regeneration and rebirth.
Images
Common Frog
The Common Frog's body is wet and smooth, with a dark patch running from the eye to the armpit, and a pointed nose on its angular head.
Common Frog
The egg mass of the Common Frog nearly fills the Cemetery's tiny man-made pond. (Photographed in mid-February, 2022.)
Common Frog
Individual eggs are visible in the egg mass of the Common Frog. These are not yet at the tadpole stage, marked by the appearance of their 'tails' and their emergence from the egg mass. (Photographed in mid-February, 2022.)
Common Frog
Note the external gills of this week-old tadpole of the Common Frog. In the adult, these will be hidden by a layer of skin.
