The Chinese gliding frog Polypedates dennysii gets its common name from
leaping between branches, using the webbing between its feet to act like
wings, allowing it to steer through the air. Adhesive pads on its feet help it
stick when landing. 
These frogs belong to the taxonomic family Rhacophoridae, can grow to four inches and feed on almost
any invertebrates that come close enough to catch.
Eggs are laid in foam nests created by the females by beating a liquid
secretion into a foam with her hind legs. 
These colourful frogs have distinctive webbed feet with each digit ending
in broad, flat discs, permitting them to climb up smooth surfaces with relative
ease. 
According to Dr Karl Shuker's authoritative tome, Extraordinary Animals
Revisited (CFZ Press) P. dennysii are said to be capable of gliding
up to three times as far as Alfred Russell Wallace's already aerodynamically
impressive flying frog Rhacophorus nigropalmatus and reverently worshiped
as a god by some of its human neighbours, who carry it in a regal procession
upon its own ceremonial chair on certain holy days. These
amphibians gliding capabilities were disbelieved by scientists for quite some
time, but as Dr Shuker rightly points out scientists will, almost as a matter of
course, ignore evidence if provided by uneducated native people. Like many other
examples of this type of academic arrogance this theory was of course eventually
proven correct.
Photographs by Philippe Lurin.
Ref
Shuker K.P.N. Extraordinary Animals Revisited (2007) CFZ Press:
Bideford.
