GIANT VAMPIRE FROG

GIANT VAMPIRE FROG 

“The giant vampire frog is a particularly noxious reptile which grows to weights of up to thirty pounds. Its bile-green body is covered with mucous and two transluscent membranes of slimy tissue connect its fore and rear limbs, enabling it to glide from treetop perches much as does a flying squirrel. Its forelims are fingered with small claws which enable the vampire frog to climb and to hold prey, and it possesses two large front teeth - each up to three inches long, sharp as needles.” 

Alan Fomorin, Dragon Magazine #50


OK! I hope you guys are ready for two weeks worth of monsters inspired by Dungeons & Dragons! I chose some real wild ones this time around. First up, the giant vampire frogs! These first appeared in Dragon Magazine from June 1981 with an illustration by John Hart.

As far as inspiration, there's actually frogs that aren't too far off from this. You may have seen the meme-able images of African Bullfrogs with huge bottom teeth as they bite down on a stick or a naturalists fingers. There's actually an entire genus of frogs (Limnonectes) known for their abnormally long teeth with species showing up in Africa, Asia & Oceania. Flying frogs also exist, though what they do is actually gliding. They're found in Thailand, Malaysia and possibly Myanmar. In fact, there's a recently discovered species known as the flying vampire frog, however, these gliding frogs only have fangs as tadpoles.



In mythology, there's a very bizarre creature from Australian Aboriginal folklore called a Yara-ma-yha-who. In the book Myths and Legends Of the Australian Aborigines, W. Ramsay Smith describes the Yara-ma-yha-who as small, red creatures with huge mouths but no teeth. They fall on their prey from the trees and use the sucker pads on their feet to drain the victim's blood. This doesn't seem too frog-like to me though.

An instagram user ( @sd75060) pointed out that this creature was inspired by an Omni article that was an April Fools joke! It's from the Last Word column by Norman Spinrad one year before (June 1980) and tells the tale of an endangered species of toad that's threatened by the building of a golf course. 

"A swampy pool overgrown with rotting palm trees— was the sole habitat of a hitherto-unknown species, the giant flying vampire toad. The misnamed toad is actually a species of frog — a huge, wet, bile green creature that can weigh up to ten kilograms. Translucent membranes of mucoid tissue are stretched between its fore and rear limbs like sails of bubbly slime, enabling it to glide for considerable distances from treetop perches, in the manner of a flying squirrel. The giant flying vampire toad is the only frog with teeth. Two of them. Upper front incisors about five centimeters long, as sharp as hypodermic needles, and hollow. The vampire-toad feeds through them. Truly a unique species."

This really must be where the inspiration came from since it's so similar!