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Southern cricket frog

Acris gryllus · Frogs and toads · Amphibians

Southern cricket frog (Acris gryllus): Small frog, 15-33 mm (females slightly larger); colour ranges from black, brown or reddish brown to bright green or grey. Contrasting stripe from the top of the snout along the back, and a triangular marking between the eyes joined to that stripe. 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 gryllus
Family
Hylidae
In North America
Native
Range
NatureServe lists it in the southeastern US: Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.
Biology

How to identify it

Small frog, 15-33 mm (females slightly larger); colour ranges from black, brown or reddish brown to bright green or grey. [1][2]

Contrasting stripe from the top of the snout along the back, and a triangular marking between the eyes joined to that stripe. [1][2]

Darker longitudinal stripe on the rear of the thigh; markedly pointed snout; more slender than the northern cricket frog with longer legs and less toe webbing. [1][2]

Males have darker throats and a single subgular sac; females have white throats. [1][2]

Compared with the northern cricket frog: Northern is larger and stockier with a blunter snout, shorter legs, more webbing and more prominent warts. [1][2]

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 southern cricket frog before you act. Compared with the northern cricket frog: Northern is larger and stockier with a blunter snout, shorter legs, more webbing and more prominent warts.[1][2]
Field knowledge

Where it lives

Grassy margins of swamps, marshes, lakes, ponds, streams, ditches, bogs and nearby temporary pools, including open woodland that is not heavily shaded; eggs and larvae develop in shallow water. [1][2]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Call is a steady, rapid 'click-click-click' at about one per second, given in choruses in most weather and at any time of day. [1][2]

Sit-and-wait insectivore; mosquitoes are a large part of the diet; tadpoles are herbivorous. [1][2]

Active throughout the year; day or night in warm months, probably mostly diurnal in cold months. Good jumper. [1][2]

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 southeastern US: Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.

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