• Background
• Characteristics

(Photo: Steve Walker)

Defensive posture: If threatened, the Southern Toadlet flips onto its back and plays dead. (Photo: Steve Walker)

The Southern Toadlet is a small species characterised by its short limbs, fingers and toes and by the brilliant yellow or orange areas under the limbs and body. The upper body surface is dark olive green to dark brown with irregular darker flecks. The throat and belly are marbled with black and white. There is also a prominent gland on each hindlimb which is usually light brown or orange in colour.

In South Australia, the Southern Toadlet is restricted to the lower South East, occurring south along a line from Kingston to Naracoorte, continuing east through Victoria.

Southern Toadlet distribution map

Size: Males 25-28 mm; Females 25-33 mm.

Habitat: Found in many damp spots in sclerophyll (Eucalyptus) forests under logs and leaf litter where it lives in small tunnels. This is the only Pseudophryne that is found in Tasmania and Bass Strait islands.

Breeding: Breeds during autumn. Calls under litter and vegetation and in low areas subject to flooding. The frog lays up to 200 eggs. They are pigmented, loosely clumped and often coated in soil. The tadpole has a dark brown body with clear fins speckled with fine dark flecks.

Advertisement call: A harsh, short and slowly repeated grating 'cre-e-ek'.