These frogs require seasonally flooded wetlands without fish for a three to four month period for tadpoles to develop completely.

They spend the remainder of the spring and summer waiting out the warm temperatures in burrows, under logs, or buried under sandy soil.

Because the ornate chorus frog is most active during the winter months, they are able to avoid many snake predators due to them already beginning their hibernation.

However, even with this defense mechanism it has been observed that these frogs rarely live for longer than one to two breeding cycles because of predation.

[7][9] Ornate chorus frogs reach sexual maturity around 1 year and reproduce through external fertilization.

[10][6] The ornate chorus frog (Pseudacris ornata) was named and classified by American herpetologist John Edwards Holbrook in 1836.

The name of the genus, Pseudacris, comes from the Greek pseudes (false) and akris (locust), probably a reference to the repeated rasping trill of most chorus frogs, which is similar to that of the insect.