Mountain Yellow-legged Frog (Rana muscosa) Fact Sheet: Diet & Feeding

Tadpoles

• Mainly herbivorous
• Feed on (Natalie Calatayud, personal communication, 2016):
• Diatoms and algae
• Small insects and aquatic larvae of insects

Adults

• Mainly carnivorous
• Feed on:
• Dragon fly nymphs and adults
• Lady bugs
• Bees, wasps
• Flies
• Ants
• Beetles
• True bugs
• Tadpoles of Bufo canorus (Yosemite)

Feeding mechanism

• Glands of tongue produce sticky secretion
• Prey is captured with projectile tongue and pulled to roof of mouth
• Gland secretions and contracting muscles of the esophagus push food into the mouth

Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog (Rana muscosa). 

Tahquitz Creek in the San Jacinto Wilderness, San Bernardino National Forest, California.

Image credit: Adam Backlin, U.S. Geological Survey at Flickr. Public Domain.

Mullaly (1953)
Long (1970)
Moore (1929)
Zeiner et al. (1988)