It is highly variable and is generally brown, however it may also be grey, yellow or reddish on the dorsal surface with irregular darker spots or blotches.

Sudell's frog inhabits ponds, dams, ditches, clay pans or any still water in woodland, shrubland, and disturbed areas (including farmland).

Males make a short trilling sound while floating in water after heavy rains, which flood the breeding area, from late winter through to autumn.

The trilling frog is adapted to desert conditions and can spend years without having to surface, buried deep underground with their glands under the skin full of water.

These frogs will spend a few weeks calling nightly while floating in or sitting at the edge of rainwater filled claypans, puddles and waterholes.

[6] They eat the numerous insects accompanying the rains and lay eggs in drawn out clumps, often wrapped around snags in the water.

It is also similar to the ornate burrowing frog (Platyplectrum ornatum) and Heleioporus from which it can be distinguished by a fully black metatarsal, webbed toes and vertical pupil.