Insects in Khao Yai - a Muek Lek sidetrip

The rains seem to have arrived early this year. They have triggered the age old cycles of the forests that have repeated for eons. The natural seasonal clock of life is ticking and has chimed a major change, a change that provides nourishment, habitat improvement, and the conditions for procreation for some species.

That time has come for the Big-eared Toad (Bufo macrotis) throughout Thailand. The big-eared toad is a leaf litter toad, it lives in the leaf litter of the forest floor. However, at mating times it congregates en masse in small forest streams and pools to take part in communal mating. It also displays another, quite exceptional, characteristic - the males turn temporarily yellow for the mating season. Discarding their normal drab hues makes the still drab females easy to distinguish at the mating sites.