The "monster" in the bamboo forest, rural people are all a bit afraid of it!

In the countryside, this was what I feared most as a child. In our hometown we called it the "green bamboo monster." As kids we always loved playing and roughhousing in the bamboo forest, catching a few yellow bamboo worms and such, picking up some "bamboo sheaths" to take home for firewood, and the thing to guard against most was this green bamboo monster, which was said to be highly venomous.

This creature is quite beautiful, with a very smooth-looking surface. Its scientific name is the bamboo frog (Zhangixalus), with a body length of about 30 mm, yellow-green on the back with irregular black markings, white on the belly, transverse bands on the front and hind limbs, and the tips of the fingers and toes swollen into suction discs. A "Y"-shaped bone trace is generally visible on its back. It lives in moso bamboo forests, often jumping from one bamboo to another, foraging for various insects.

In the countryside I have also seen many frogs of similar appearance. As a rural person myself, I am hopelessly unable to tell them apart. I only know that the adults often warned us that these frogs must not be touched, as if it sprays out some kind of venom. Whether or not it is venomous, I did not want to take the risk, for fear it would jump onto my shoulder.

In the countryside fields and plots, I think the only somewhat cute one is the frog. The most disgusting is the toad that eats mosquitoes. Rural people all know that messing with its belly will make it swell up, that when it is alarmed its eyes will spurt blood, and that the most terrifying thing is that it will spray urine, and if that gets into your eyes by accident, you could go blind.