Dusty Glass Frog (Teratohyla pulverata)

Glass Frogs are fascinating, given their transparent ventral skin, which lets us peak into the internal structure of a frog. The organs that are visible varies according to the species, with some species showing the intestines and lower organs, while others show the heart and upper structure. In some of them, the bones are also visible inside the legs. Most of these frogs are overall green in coloration, which provides camouflage in the forest environment they live in.

This species is called Dusty given how the dorsal skin is covered in very small white spots. They are intermediate between the sizes of Strawberry and Green and Black Poison Dart Frogs, and definitely bigger than the Dwarf Glass Frog, which belongs to the same family of frogs. Their skin is mostly green, with yellowish tints in the ventral surfaces of the limbs and in the tips of fingers and toes. Given these colors, it is not surprising that I could be staring directly into one of these sitting conspicuously on a leaf and still not see it! The eyes are very large, located at each side of the head, enabling the frog to spot predators from both sides; the pupil is horizontally elliptical, while the iris is covered with an intricate pattern of blue and gray.