The last time Patti and I visited the Daytona Captive Breeders Expo was four years ago. I had looked at about all of the ball pythons and leopard geckos I chose to see on that day, and we were taking the long way around to the exit.

As I was passing almost the last sales booth in that aisle, I glanced to the left and stopped in my tracks. In one of the half dozen tanks on the table was a beautiful lizard that I recognized immediately as a Diploglossus lessonae. I sidled over to the table, and as I got there my interest in the lizards was sidetracked by a tank of frogs.

They were a Pacman-type frog but of a species I had not before seen. The vendor asserted that they were Brazilian horned frogs, Ceratophrys aurita. Based on that, I purchased the only one of the three that looked in good condition. This was a male and even he had what appeared to be a corneal lipid deposit on one eye. We named him Grumpy. Philippe deVosjoli bought the other two, and I believe that they are still alive. Philippe determined that the species was not aurita as initially thought, but was another Brazilian taxon, Ceratophrys joazeirensis, a mid-sized species.

Whatever this little frog may be, he has now stared at me morosely for the better part of four years. His periods of quietude are interspersed with an occasional night of vocalizing as thunderstorms or tropical depressions roll through. And he has never once refused his nightcrawlers. Not once.

More photos under the jump...