While more than 7,000 species of frogs all mating in one of six different positions, it’s difficult to imagine one frog species deviating from all the rest. But India’s Bombay night frog isn’t like every other species out there.
Before we get to the new addition to what a National Geographic article calls the ‘Frog Kama Sutra’, there are six other positions that need explaining.
Without going into too much detail, the six other mating positions for frogs are: inguinal, axillary, cephalic, glued, independent, and head straddle. The first three positions involve the male frog enveloping the female in a hug, grabbing them around the waist or under armpits. This hug is called amplexus. The other three involve the male and female in various other positions.
But the Bombay night frog doesn’t follow any of these rules of nature, as scientists soon found out. They instead mate in a position called the dorsal straddle. Here’s how it works:
“1. The female approaches a calling male.
2. The female touches the male.
3. The male mounts the female in a dorsal straddle and releases sperm onto her back. The male dismounts.
4. The female lays her eggs. Sperm trickles down her back and fertilizes the eggs.”
It also deserves to be noted that the Bombay night frogs do not even use amplexus when they mate. The process is a little bit different. The female sits on a twig and the male presses his abdomen onto her back, holding onto the twig as he does so. That’s the newest addition to an already decorated tree of positions.
“It has been a wonderful experience to observe the entire breeding sequence of this unique frog. It’s like watching a scripted event,” study leader Sathyabhama Das Biju, a biologist at the University of Delhi said in an email to National Geographic.
