Amphibians

Wallace's Flying Frog

Rhacophorus nigropalmatus · also called Wallace's flying frog, Malayan flying frog

Least Concern ↓ carnivoreinsectivore Rainforest

Wallace’s flying frog does not fly, but from a high branch in the Southeast Asian rainforest canopy it does something close: it spreads hands and feet webbed almost to the fingertips into a set of parachutes and glides up to 15 metres, steering as it falls. It is named for the naturalist whose years collecting in this same forest helped him arrive, independently of Darwin, at the theory of evolution by natural selection.

Overview

Wallace’s flying frog, Rhacophorus nigropalmatus, is a large green tree frog of the rainforest canopy in Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula. It hunts insects at night high above the ground and rarely descends except to breed, laying eggs in a foam nest on a branch overhanging water, from which hatching tadpoles drop straight into the pool below.

Built to glide

Its fingers and toes carry extensive webbing, and flank skin adds further surface area. Leaping and spreading all four limbs turns a fall into a controlled glide of around 15 metres, letting the frog escape predators and move through the forest without repeatedly climbing down and back up a tall tree. The exposed webbing, often black, yellow, or orange, is hidden at rest and only flashes into view mid-glide.

Status

Least Concern and still fairly widespread, tolerating some forest disturbance, but entirely dependent on tall canopy for gliding and clean pools for breeding — ongoing deforestation across its range is expected to bring further decline.

Wallace's Flying Frog: common questions

How far can Wallace's flying frog actually glide?

Documented glides cover roughly 15 metres of horizontal distance from a single launch, though the exact figure depends on the height of the starting branch, the angle of the leap, and conditions such as air movement. The frog does this by leaping outward from a high perch and immediately spreading its four heavily webbed limbs and the loose skin along its sides into a broad surface, converting the fall into a much shallower, controlled glide rather than a straight drop, and it can make small steering adjustments in the air by shifting its limbs and body position.

Is Wallace's flying frog the same as other flying frogs?

It is one of several species commonly called flying or gliding frogs, mostly in the genus Rhacophorus in the Old World tree frog family, all of which have independently evolved enlarged webbed hands and feet for gliding, but Wallace's flying frog is generally regarded as one of the largest and most accomplished gliders among them, with particularly extensive webbing. Similar gliding adaptations have evolved separately in a handful of other frog lineages elsewhere in the world, an example of convergent evolution toward the same solution for moving efficiently through a tall forest canopy.

Who was Wallace's flying frog named after?

It is named for Alfred Russel Wallace, a 19th-century British naturalist, explorer, and collector who spent about eight years travelling through the Malay Archipelago, an experience that led him to independently develop a theory of evolution by natural selection strikingly similar to the one Charles Darwin had been working on privately, which prompted the two men's ideas to be presented together in 1858 before Darwin published On the Origin of Species. Wallace collected an enormous number of new species during his travels, and this large gliding tree frog was one of several named in his honour.

Why does a tree frog need to glide at all?

Gliding solves two related problems for an animal that spends almost its entire life high in the canopy. It offers a fast, effective escape from predators, since launching into a long, controlled glide from a high branch can put substantial distance between the frog and a snake, lizard, or other threat far more quickly than climbing or hopping away along branches. It also makes ordinary movement through the forest more efficient, letting the frog cover ground rapidly to reach food, a mate, or a breeding pool without the time and energy cost of repeatedly climbing all the way down a tall tree and back up another.

Sources & further reading

Written by HideShark Editorial Team · reviewed by HideShark Science Desk. Published September 11, 2026. Last updated September 11, 2026.

Quick facts

Scientific name: Rhacophorus nigropalmatus
Diet: Insects and other small invertebrates hunted high in the rainforest canopy at night, including crickets, moths, and beetles, caught with a lunge and a flick of the tongue among the branches and leaves where the frog spends nearly all of its adult life
Hands and feet built as parachutes: The fingers and toes are extremely long and fully webbed with a wide membrane of skin between them, and when the frog leaps from a branch and spreads all four limbs, this webbing, along with flaps of loose skin along the flanks, forms a set of gliding surfaces that dramatically slow its fall and let it steer
Gliding, not powered flight: Wallace's flying frog cannot flap or generate lift the way a bird or bat does, but by spreading its webbed limbs and flattening its body it converts what would otherwise be a fall into a controlled glide, covering horizontal distances of up to about 15 metres from a single high launch point while descending only gradually
Named after Alfred Russel Wallace: The species was first collected and described in the mid-19th century and is named for the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who independently proposed a theory of evolution by natural selection alongside Charles Darwin and spent years studying wildlife across the Malay Archipelago
Gliding to escape and to travel: Gliding lets this frog escape ground and lower-canopy predators by launching from a high branch and covering a large horizontal distance in a single controlled drop, and it also allows more efficient movement through the forest, reaching a mate, food, or a breeding pool far below without a long, exposed, and energetically costly climb back down and up again
A vivid green with hidden colour: The frog is bright green above, which camouflages it among leaves, but the exposed webbing between the toes and some of the flank skin can be black, yellow, or orange, only visible when the limbs are spread in flight or in a defensive display, briefly flashing colour that is otherwise hidden at rest
Foam nests high above water: Breeding pairs create a nest of whipped foam on a leaf or branch overhanging a pool or slow stream, and after the eggs develop inside the foam for a period, the hatching tadpoles drop down into the water below to continue their development, a strategy shared with several other tree frog relatives
Range: The rainforests of the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, and Sumatra in Southeast Asia, living almost entirely in the middle and upper canopy of tall, humid, primary and well-developed secondary lowland and hill rainforest, descending mainly to breed in pools, slow streams, and other still water below the canopy.
Conservation status: Least Concern ↓ ≈ Wallace's flying frog remains fairly widespread across its range in Southeast Asian rainforest and is currently assessed as Least Concern, tolerating some degree of forest disturbance and persisting in secondary growth as well as primary forest. It is, however, entirely dependent on tall forest with a well-developed canopy for its gliding lifestyle and on clean pools or slow water for breeding, so ongoing deforestation for logging, agriculture, and plantation expansion across Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula represents a long-term threat to its habitat, and populations are expected to decline further as suitable tall forest continues to shrink and fragment in the wild

Overview

Built to glide

Status

Wallace's Flying Frog: common questions

Sources & further reading

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