Japanese Rice Frog

Fascinating facts about the Japanese Rice Frog

• Male F. kawamurai measure 36–41 mm from snout to vent, while females reach 40–47 mm.
• First spotted in Japan’s Kanto region in 1997, this tiny amphibian likely hitchhiked on imported soil or seeds, and warming temperatures may now be pulling it further north, illustrating how human trade and climate together rewrite species’ maps.
• From early May to mid-August, these frogs lay several egg clutches, and in central Japan their tadpoles sprint through metamorphosis, emerging as juveniles by early July and reaching full adult size by August – a rapid life-cycle that lets them exploit the short, flooded rice-field window.
• Its stomach is mainly insects, a juvenile once swallowed a Hyla japonica whole, and adults have been seen fighting over a worm.
• In 2016, researchers recorded the first scavenging act for any Fejervarya species when an adult fed on a dead Pelophylax nigromaculatus at a rice-field edge.

At a glance

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