One of its distinguishing features is the peptide secretion on its skin, which goes beyond toxicity and seems to inhibit aggressive behavior like biting and stinging from large ants.

This allows Phrynomantis microps to live in humid burrows within large ant nests and termite mounds, where they are frequently found.

The brightness of the red back can change to brown or even gray depending on the situation in which the frog finds itself, the pelvic region will always be the reddest part of the body.

Ponds formed during the rainy season are the site of mating and where the offspring Phrynomantis microps live until they are no longer tadpoles.

Phrynomantis microps tadpoles, among other species, were found to be important regulators of algal biomass in freshwater ponds.

They do not seem to guard their territory during the day or at night when hunting, and as many as six Phrynomantis microps can be found inhabiting the same ant nest.

[2] When calling, males migrate in search of a nearby pond formed by the heavy rains and do not claim a territory.

They then remain coupled while they finish walking to a nearby pond, where immediately after fertilization the egg clutches are laid.

[5] Phrynomantis microps will only search for mates during the rainy season of their respective habitats, which vary in duration and precipitation rates.

[4] Over the course of the same years, Phrynomantis microps in another reserve in Benin would exhibit reproductive activity at different rainfall rates.

After a day of sufficient heavy rainfall, males emerge from their burrows at night to call while they migrate towards ponds.

Swarming could be confusing the predator, making it harder to discern prey from one another, as well as increasing the chances of survival for tadpoles within the group.

In addition to Anax imperator mentioned before, tadpoles are also hunted by the larvae of aquatic arthropods Tramea basilaris and Pantala flavescens.

Adult aquatic predators include two water beetle species (Hydrocyrius columbiae and Nepella pauliani) and Ranatra sp.

These large ants, including the specie Paltothyreus tarsatus and Megaponera foetens, are extremely aggressive and capable of both biting and stinging.

[2] Despite the ants’ territoriality, Phrynomantis microps are able to live within the burrows and never suffer a single sting and only the occasional bite.

[8] When entering a burrow or triggering aggression from the ants, Phrynomantis microps crouch their bodies and cover their heads with their forelegs, raising their posterior upwards.