A species
Red-eyed tree frog
Agalychnis callidryas
The sleeping green leaf with flashing red eyes.
You and the red-eyed tree frog last shared an ancestor about 350 million years ago (on 1 December, if life's history were one year).
Imagine a green leaf that suddenly opens a pair of huge red eyes. By day this frog sleeps stuck to the underside of a leaf, with its legs and feet tucked in and its eyes shut, so you mostly see its leaf-green back. If a bird or snake disturbs it, it flashes open its bulging scarlet eyes, bright orange feet and blue sides with cream stripes. The sudden surprise may give it a moment to leap to safety.
It is an amphibian, like its neighbour on the tree of life, the axolotl, but this one lives up in the leaves. About as long as an adult thumb, it lives in humid rainforest from southern Mexico to northern South America, usually near ponds or slow streams. Sticky pads on its toes let it cling to smooth leaves, and at night it hunts live crickets, flies and moths with its long, sticky tongue.
Females lay a group of jelly-covered eggs on a leaf hanging over water. When the tadpoles hatch, they drop down into the pond below to keep growing.
Bright but not poisonous
Despite its bright colours, it is not poisonous, unlike some other bright tropical frogs.
Eggs that sense danger
Babies still inside the eggs can feel shakes and tell a snake attack apart from heavy rain. If they sense a snake, they can hatch up to about 3 days early to escape.
Short life in a shrinking forest
On average, it lives about 5 years in the wild. Its numbers are falling as rainforest habitat shrinks.