📸 PhotoPhoto: en:User:Cburnett · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Giant Monkey Frog
Phyllomedusa bicolor (Giant Monkey Frog · フタイロネコメガエル)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 Its maximum length of 119 mm is similar to four and a half Korean 500-won coins (26.5 mm in diameter) lined up side by side (Comparison).
- 💡 Its skin secretion has been used for centuries by indigenous peoples of the western Amazon in 'kambô' rituals and is studied in pharmacology, though researchers warn that misuse can lead to health problems or death (2022 review paper).
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
The Giant Monkey Frog is a large treefrog living in the rainforests of the Amazon Basin, called 'kambô' in Brazil. Its skin secretions are rich in bioactive peptides.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
A large treefrog with a snout-to-vent length of 91–118 mm in males and 106–119 mm in females, it has a dark green back, a white to cream belly, dark-edged white spots on the lower lip, chest, and forelegs, and large green adhesive pads at the fingertips.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It breeds mainly in the rainy season (November to May in the central Amazon), where the pair lays eggs inside a chamber made by folding leaves of plants overhanging ponds. What it eats in the wild is unrecorded, while other species in the same family are ambush predators that target spiders, beetles, and caterpillars.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List LC (2023) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/55841/61405317
- • IUCN Red List category LC — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • catalogueoflife.org — 4H7QP
- • iucnredlist.org — 61405317
- • wikidata.org — Q2697105
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Giant Waxy Monkey Frog.jpg
- • pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov — PMC9582840
- • bok.or.kr — contents.do
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — author not recorded · CC0 1.0 (Related taxon silhouette — Litoria infrafrenata)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.