This comprehensive book on Frogs of Australia has been bought by the Field Nats, with a grant from the Barry Kenway Memorial Fund, to be put into its library. Marion Anstis, the author, began her working life as a high school music teacher, but had a passion for frogs since childhood. She is now a frog biologist with a PhD from New Castle University.
The book has been designed to help to identify live tadpoles, frog eggs, metamorphs, and adult frogs in Australia. It has three parts, the first two fairly short in comparison to the third:- Part I deals with the developmental stages from egg to near metamorphosed frog.
- Part 2 explains various features of tadpoles, eggs and frogs used during identification.
- Part 3 deals with living frogs in their natural habitat. It has many illustrations and photos, calls they make.
For frog specialists, or a would-be specialist, there is a useful key for genera of tadpoles and direct development.
Take as an example, the Striped Frog Marsh (Limnodynastes peronii), found in our area and shown on the poster 'Frogs of Toowooomba': this is how it is treated in the book:
- Photos of adult frogs, one of them taken at night in Ravensbourne National Park
- Embryos
- Tadpoles
- Metamorphosis
- Behaviour
- Similar species
It is a beautifully bound book that one could dip in whenever one has a few moments to spare, or when a naturalist moment occurs.
(Francis Mangubhai)