What are tadpoles like in winter?

In the Danxia Valley Scenic Area of Sanchahe Town, Xishui County, there are many unique phenomena of Danxia landform, whether it is Fokienia hodginsii, a national second-class key protected plant stubbornly growing on the top of rocks, or Wangsendai Grottoes built by mountains and rivers, which are amazing.

What is even more surprising is that the reporter saw in a well in the scenic spot that although the Mid-Autumn Festival was approaching, it was originally a season when tadpoles were not very active, but the dark black tadpoles in this well were swimming around, which seemed to be completely unaffected by the cold weather. Because the light in the well is too dark, when the reporter takes a photo of the well with his mobile phone, these cute tadpoles will swim over and gather at once, but they will wander around again after a while, and they are a little sensitive to light.

"The uniqueness of this kind of tadpole is that tadpoles swim in this well all year round, and winter is no exception." The staff of Danxia Valley Scenic Area introduced that they have been puzzling, so they invited experts from cross-border scientific research to solve this mystery for them.

During the scientific research of Xishui these days, the reporter also found these tadpoles in streams such as Magouer in Zhongtongba many times, indicating that "four seasons tadpoles" are widely distributed in Xishui. In fact, "these tadpoles are called spiny frogs, and it takes 90 days to develop from fertilized eggs into small frogs." Yang Weicheng revealed the secret.

According to Yang Weicheng, the male spiny frog has small spines similar to cucumber skin in the abdomen, while the female spiny frog does not, so it is easy to identify among frogs. Female spiny frogs usually lay eggs three times a year, mostly in April and May. At the optimum water temperature, it takes about 90 days for a fertilized egg to change from a tadpole to a frog, while the suitable temperature for a fertilized egg of a spiny frog is 14 ~ 26℃ and the optimum temperature is 65438+.

"Their survival still has a critical temperature. If it is below 12℃, they will stop developing and enter hibernation. If the temperature reaches below 0℃, they will die, and the growth rate of tadpoles will also be affected at different temperatures. " Yang Weicheng said.

According to the results of the previous field test, Yang Weicheng believes that the biggest factor for the appearance of Xishui "Four Seasons Tadpole" is that the water temperature is suitable, which will form this strange phenomenon.

"The tadpoles we found in the scientific research lasted for 40 days, and it was 1 1 month when they became frogs." Yang Weicheng analyzed that if the frog fertilized and laid eggs and developed into a small tadpole, as long as the temperature in the well was between 14 ~ 26℃ and there were plankton in the water for it to eat, then the small tadpole could grow into a small frog after 90 days, which happened to be winter, and the phenomenon of small tadpole and small frog would appear in the well in winter.

Biological data

The frog lives in a small mountain stream or under a swamp stone with lush vegetation and a water surface width of about 1 m at an altitude of 500 ~ 1 400 m, and mainly preys on a variety of insects, spiders and caterpillars.

The breeding season is from June to July, and the continuous sound of "click, click" is emitted at night, and the elderly can reach 10 Yu Sheng; Eggs are laid in a stream, strung or scattered under grass roots or stones. The female frog lays 54 ~ 107 eggs. Tadpoles live in small puddles in ravines.

Reference to the above content: Baidu Encyclopedia -Echinofrog