Summer night air is filled with the mating calls of frogs and toads.

Frogs and toads fill the air with a loud chorus on summer evenings, especially following wet weather. But you may have to see them with your ears!

Our house cat, Socks, sits on a window ledge next to a screen on an open window and listens intently to the chorus. If he were he allowed outdoors, he’d hunt the critters using acute hearing and night vision.

Not having the senses of a cat, I had to prowl outside with a flashlight years ago to learn who’s who among the amphibian chorus. And now, I can use my ears to visualize each singing frog and toad.

You can do that, too, because nowadays you can learn the calls of frogs and toads just by listening to recordings on the web at herpsoftexas.org/view/ frogs.

The nighttime choir of frogs and toads consists mostly of males singing to woo females for mating. They sing by inflating their throats with air and then blowing it out as a tune. Females pick out male mates that have louder songs with longer durations than competing males.

Amphibians are cold-blooded animals that depend on ambient temperature to regulate body heat. Their bodies would overheat during summer’s daytime temperatures, which is why males belt out mating songs at dusk and into the night.

Frogs are more aquatic than toads, which spend much of their time on land. Both need aquatic habitat to breed, and our nearby bayous, ponds and creeks provide them with good habitat.

During breeding, the male mounts the back of the female and embraces her with his forelegs. The mating embrace is called amplexus. As the female releases her eggs, the male releases his sperm to fertilize them. The pair may remain in the embrace for hours as the female lays hundreds of fertilized eggs in water.

Within a couple of weeks, tadpoles emerge from the eggs and swim like a fish with gills and a tail. Within three to four months, tadpoles will have gradually metamorphized into frogs or toads.

Frogs have smooth skin and long, strong hind legs for leaping. Toads have bumpy skin and relatively short, strong hind legs for hopping.

A toad’s bumpy skin looks like warts, which prompted the folklore that you’ll get warts if you touch a toad. I’m living proof that old saw is false.

And now, allow me and Socks to watch frogs and toads with our ears.

Photos by Kathy Adams Clark / Contributor The mating calls of toads and frogs, like this green tree frog, fill the air during the summer each evening.

Toads, like this Gulf Coast toad, have bumpy skin and relatively short, strong hind legs for hopping.

Tadpoles emerge from eggs and swim like fish for three-four months. They will gradually metamorphize into frogs or toads.

Frogs, like this gray tree frog, have smooth skin and long, strong hind legs for leaping.