An adult Cuban Treefrog discovered in Sedgwick County, Kansas. Image by Ryan Philbrick (brick1083). iNat observation #84572115.
An adult Cuban Treefrog discovered in Sedgwick County, Kansas. Image by Ryan Philbrick (brick1083). iNat observation #84572115.
AMPHIBIA (Amphibians) ANURA (Frogs) HYLIDAE (Treefrogs and Allies)

Cuban Treefrog
Osteopilus septentrionalis (Dumeril and Bibron 1841)
ä-stē-ə-pī''-lŭs — sĕp-''tĕn-trē-än-ā-lŭs


Conservation Status:

State: None

Federal: None
NatureServe State: SNA - Not Applicable
NatureServe National: N5 - Secure
NatureServe Global: G5 - Secure
CITES: None
Diagnosis:
Body-color is highly variable, ranging from whitish to gray, green, or brown, and may be marked with irregular, dark stripes or blotches that fade when the frog changes color. Skin is warty (some warts quite prominent). The armpits and groin may be washed with yellow. Juvenile body color is olive-brown; sides are often marked with light stripes. Juveniles often have reddish eyes, and blue bones that can best be seen through the skin on the underside of the hind legs (show in the lower-left inset image above). Like all treefrogs, this species has enlarged, sticky toepads; toepads are quite large in this species, usually much wider than the toepads of native treefrogs.

Distribution:
A single specimen was found alive in a shipment of flowers in Hays, Kansas. Native to Cuba, it was introduced into the US in the Florida Keys during the 1930s, it has since made its way to the mainland and spread up each coast of peninsular Florida. It is unlikely to survive Kansas winters.
Native to Cuba, the Cayman Islands, and the Bahamas. Introduced throughout the Caribbean, in Hawaii, and in Florida. Possible isolated population in southeastern Texas.
(,   Museum Voucher) (,   Observation) (,   Literature Record) (,   iNat Record), (  Fossil)
Open icons are questionable records; Click on a marker to view details.
Full range depicted by light shaded red area. Export Google Earth (.kml)
  • Occurrence Summary:  
  • 5
    Records 
  • 3
    Museum Vouchers 
  • 2
    Other Observations 
Some county occurrences indicated below may be too imprecise to map above.
County Breakdown: County Name (# occurrences):
Ellis (2); Grant (1); Sedgwick (2);

Fossil History:
Not known from Kansas.

Natural History:
Eats beetles, roaches, spiders, other small invertebrates; also small frogs, lizards, and snakes.

Occurrence Activity:
Number of Unique Obervations (=days): 4; Range: 07 Jan to 16 Jul
Chorusing:

Audio recording by Keith Coleman.

Chorusing Phenology: The black outlined dots denote the Julian date (day of the year; 1 January = 1 to 31 December = 365) an observation was made. The thin red line depicts the range of dates between the beginning of the first, and end of the fourth quartile (excluding outliers; Tukey method). The thick light blue bar represents the second and third quartile (interquartile range; the middle 50% of all observations). Only one observation per Julian date is included in the graphs; so a date with multiple observations carries the same weight as a date with only one observation. The vertical bars correspond to the 12 months of the year; January through December.
Number of Unique Obervations: ; Range: ; Interquartile range: ;

Remarks:
Not a target species for this project. However, all records will be kept.

Bibliography:
1841 Dumeril, A. M. Constant and Gabriel Bibron. Erpetologie Generale ou Histoire Naturelle Complete Des Reptiles. Tome Huitieme. [General Herpetology or Complete Natural History of Reptiles. Volume Eight.] Librairie Encyclopedique de Roret, Paris, France. 784pp.
1974 Collins, Joseph T. Amphibians and Reptiles in Kansas University of Kansas Museum of Natural History Public Education Series (1):283 pp
Joseph T. Collins first Kansas herpetology. <Need to get species total and principal differences with previous 'version' (= Smith 1956)>
1976 Rundquist, Eric M. Field checklist (of) amphibians and reptiles of Kansas. Kansas Herpetological Society, Lawrence. pp.
1982 Collins, Joseph T. Amphibians and Reptiles in Kansas. 2nd edition. University of Kansas Museum of Natural History Public Education Series (8):
Joseph T. Collins second Kansas herpetology. <Need to get species total and principal differences with previous 'version' (= Collins 1974)>
1986 Capron, Marty B. If its December it must be time for frogs. Kansas Herpetological Society Newsletter (66):17
1991 Conant, Roger and Joseph T. Collins. Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America. 3rd ed. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts. pp.
1993 Collins, Joseph T. and Suzanne L. Collins. Amphibians and Reptiles in Kansas. Third Edition. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Lawrence. 397pp.
Joseph T. Collins third Kansas herpetology. <Need to get species total and principal differences with previous 'version' (= Collins 1982)>
1998 Conant, Roger and Joseph T. Collins. Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America. 3rd ed, expanded. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts. pp.
1998 Powell, Robert, Joseph T Collins, and Errol D Hooper Jr. A Key to Amphibians & Reptiles of the Continental United States and Canada. Univ Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. 131pp.
2002 Kingsbury, Bruce and Joanna Gibson. Habitat Management Guidelines for Amphibians and Reptiles of the Midwest. Publication of Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, Address not given. 152pp.
2012 Powell, Robert, Joseph T Collins, and Errol D Hooper Jr. Key to the Herpetofauna of the Continental United States and Canada: Second Edition, Revised and Updated. Univ Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. 152pp.
2016 Powell, Robert, Roger Conant, and Joseph T. Collins. Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston. 494pp.
2017 Crother, Brian I. (editor) Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding. Eighth edition. Herpetological Circulars (43):1-102
2019 Powell, Robert, Joseph T Collins, and Errol D Hooper Jr. Key to the Herpetofauna of the Continental United States and Canada. Third Edition. Univ Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. 192pp.
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Travis W. Taggart © 1999-2025 — w/ Sternberg Museum of Natural History, Fort Hays State University