This is a small, cryptic frog. 28–36 mm You are not looking for a frog — you are looking for a piece of bark that is slightly too symmetrical, with eyes that catch the light.
Large, rounded, golden or copper-toned, protruding from a heavily textured face. No other small Theloderma in southern Vietnam has this combination
The first thing a client will notice is the eyes — large, rounded, and often bright golden or copper-toned, protruding from a face that otherwise looks exactly like the bark it is sitting on. This is a frog that has evolved to be overlooked. The skin is heavily textured, covered in raised tubercles, warts, and irregular ridges that mimic the surface of moss-covered bark. The coloration is a chaotic mix of deep green, brown, and black mottling, with dark brown reticulations and irregular black spots, larger and more distinct on the posterior part of the dorsum
his species can vary the pigmentation of its skin in response to diet and period. Diurnally, the dorsum is a lighter gray-brown to beige; nocturnally, it darkens to a warm chocolate-brown
Southern and central Vietnam, from the Con Dao archipelago in the south (Con Son Island) north to Kon Tum Province (Mang Canh environs). Recorded from sea level up to 1,500 m a.s.l
Nocturnal. By day, the frog shelters inside water-filled tree holes and other dark, moist cavities. At night, it emerges to forage and call
If you are looking at a tiny, bark-textured frog on a tree trunk with water-filled holes, in lowland or hill forest below 1,500 m in southern or central Vietnam, T. vietnamense is the primary candidate
Vocalization: A short, rising, pulsed whistle. Not a loud call — the low fundamental frequency (around 1.2–1.3 kHz) gives it a somewhat hollow, wooden quality
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