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Northern cricket frog

Acris crepitans · Frogs and toads · Amphibians

Northern cricket frog (Acris crepitans): Small frog, 22-29 mm; eastern animals are smaller (22-26 mm) than western ones (24-29 mm). Polymorphic dorsal stripe that can be green, red or grey (green most common); stripe is absent on tadpoles and appears after metamorphosis. This profile does not establish whether taking it is legal anywhere.

Check rules for a place and date

Certified rules currently represented in Hunt: coverage in development. This is coverage, not a legal answer.

Scientific name
Acris crepitans
Family
Hylidae
In North America
Native
Range
NatureServe lists it in the eastern US from New York and Pennsylvania south to Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana; it is not recorded for Canada in that source.
Biology

How to identify it

Small frog, 22-29 mm; eastern animals are smaller (22-26 mm) than western ones (24-29 mm). [1][2][3]

Polymorphic dorsal stripe that can be green, red or grey (green most common); stripe is absent on tadpoles and appears after metamorphosis. [1][2][3]

Compared with the southern cricket frog it is larger and stockier, with a blunter snout, shorter legs, more toe webbing and more prominent warts. [1][2][3]

Compared with the southern cricket frog: Southern is smaller and more slender, with a more pointed snout, longer legs, less toe webbing, and a dark longitudinal stripe on the rear of the thigh. [1][2][3]

Species it is confused with

Check these before deciding what you are looking at. If you are not certain what it is, do not shoot.

Field notes

  • Identification Confirm a northern cricket frog before you act. Compared with the southern cricket frog: Southern is smaller and more slender, with a more pointed snout, longer legs, less toe webbing, and a dark longitudinal stripe on the rear of the thigh.[1][2][3]
Field knowledge

Where it lives

Edges of sunny marshes, marshy ponds and small slow-moving streams in open country; eggs and larvae develop in shallow water. [1][2][3]

Hibernates underground on land near water, sometimes communally. [1][2][3]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Call is a series of short clicks given in rapid bouts; males lower call pitch to assert dominance. [1][2][3]

Diet is mostly small terrestrial insects plus some spiders, taken opportunistically. [1][2][3]

Diurnal in cool weather and active day and night in warm months; inactive in the coldest months in the north, brumating in bank crevices, under logs or vegetation; moves after heavy rain. [1][2][3]

Regulatory handoff

Limited legal take

Legal take of this species exists only under narrow conditions — a quota, a draw, a permit, a small area, or animals released or held on private land — set by the authorities below. Nowhere else is a legal opportunity implied, and Hunt shows one only where a certified rule establishes it.

Where legal take is listed

Being listed is not an open season. Seasons, zones, licences, methods and limits decide whether this animal may be taken on a given day and place — check Hunt or the authority before you go. Listings read 2026-09-30.

Geospatial intelligence

Where it is found

NatureServe lists it in the eastern US from New York and Pennsylvania south to Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana; it is not recorded for Canada in that source.

Biology

Sources

Every claim above is attributed to one of these published sources.

  1. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe

  2. Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology · reviewed 2026-09-30

    Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology

  3. Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology · reviewed 2026-09-30

    Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology