Amboina Wart Frog

The Amboina wart frog is a very large, semiaquatic member of Limnonectes distributed under that name across Sulawesi, the Moluccas and New Guinea. A south-east Sulawesi study recorded an exceptionally broad size range, from 2.4 to 17 cm and 2.1 to 620 g. The same researchers noted complete toe webbing and reduced toe discs, a combination suited to movement in flowing water (Gillespie et al. 2004).

In south-east Sulawesi, adults, juveniles and tadpoles were recorded in stream environments. Egg deposition occurred in gravel depressions made by adults or in natural hollows on flat rock shelves near riffles and cascades, while larvae occupied calmer pools within the stream system. Separate work in Buton's Lambusango Forest examined the population and harvesting of these giant frogs. Taxonomic sources caution that some Sulawesi animals assigned this name may represent undescribed species (Gillespie et al. 2004; Susanto 2010).