Frogs mate with no body contact

Experts discovered a new mating posture unique in Bombay night frogs in India, in which instead of hugging their partners, the male stood in the form of legs above the female.

According to Mirror, the newly discovered mating posture only exists on the night frog Bombay , making them different from the 6,650 species of frogs and toads around the world. This frog with the scientific name Nyctibatrachus humayuni is endemic in the Western Ghats biodiversity area of ​​India. They possess wrinkled, speckled skin and short, fat limbs.

Bombay Frog is mating.(Photo: SD Biju).

Indian flying frogs are in a group of ancient frogs differentiated 70-80 million years ago and are often seen in streams at sunset when they call their partners during the breeding season.

A group of scientists at the University of Delhi, Bangalore and the University of Minnesota, USA, discovered strange mating methods in night frogs Bombay during a survey that lasted more than 40 nights at the Western Ghats from 2010 to 2012.

In a finding published yesterday in the journal PeerJ, the team called the new mating posture " dorsal straddle ," because the male stood on the back of the female with the front limb tightly held or pressed. leaf branches as fulcrum. This position is very different because most male frogs often hug their children tightly during mating.

The male releases sperm on the female's back before leaving. After that, the female lays eggs and the eggs are fertilized by small sperm from its back. Male and female bodies do not have direct contact during egg laying and fertilization.

In other frogs, female frogs always lay eggs while males embrace it and release sperm to fertilize eggs.

In addition, frogs on the night of Bombay specialized in calling partners during the breeding season. The researchers only encountered this behavior in 25 species of frogs around the world, because most male frogs often actively attract mates.