''Quasipaa exilispinosa'' is a species of

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

in the family

Dicroglossidae The frog family Dicroglossidae occurs in tropical and subtropical regions of Asia and Africa, with most genera and species being found in Asia. The common name of the family is fork-tongued frogs. The Dicroglossidae were previously considered to ...

. It is known under many common names, including Hong Kong spiny frog, common spiny frog, lesser spiny frog, little spiny frog, and Hong Kong paa frog. It has a patchy distribution in southern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

including

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are subtropical hill streams in forests or shrublands, and sometimes also seepages, stream-fed marshes, and forests. It is threatened by over-collecting for human consumption and by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

. As hinted by common names "lesser" or "little" spiny frog, ''Quasipaa exilispinosa'' are relatively small among ''Quasipaa'' and the related frogs. Males grow to a snout–vent length of about and females to .

Tadpole A tadpole is the larval stage in the biological life cycle of an amphibian. Most tadpoles are fully aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial. Tadpoles have some fish-like features that may not be found i ...

s are up to about in length.

References

Quasipaa Amphibians of China Fauna of Hong Kong Endemic fauna of China Amphibians described in 1975 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Dicroglossidae-stub