I have a friend, let’s call her Gee, who really, really likes the color purple. I mean, she wears purple, her horse tack is purple, and she even named her puppy “Purple.” I’m surprised her truck isn’t purple, but maybe that color wasn’t available! Gee actively seeks out purple in the world.
She was recently telling me about a “purple toad” that lives in India. Of course, I was curious to find out more about this intriguing creature! Purple isn’t a common color in animals, except perhaps for the mollusk murex (Bolinus brandaris), which is famously the source of Tyrian purple dye, and, of course, that famous purple cow:
The Purple Cow by Gelett Burgess (1866-1951) I never saw a Purple Cow, I never hope to see one, But I can tell you, anyhow, I’d rather see than be one!
I admit, I love this poem, especially since I was able to memorize it!
As we sat in the cool of a June evening in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, Gee told me about this amazing purple amphibian in India. I’d never heard of a purple toad anywhere, so I was immediately interested. Hey, tell me about new and different animals, and I’m straight to Googling!
The Truth About the “Purple Toad”: A Froggy Revelation!
That “purple toad” in India was actually a purple frog! As I often tell people, there are distinct differences between toads and frogs, just like there are between turtles and tortoises (see the book my tortoise Myrtle made me write: Don’t Call Me Turtle!).
Okay, not a toad, but a frog, still awesome! The purple frog (Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis) is endemic to the Western Ghats of India. This unique frog spends most of its life underground, only emerging for mating during the monsoon season. We have toads in the Sonoran Desert that would certainly relate to this subterranean lifestyle! These purple frogs are remarkable in that they feed underground, mainly on termites. It’s a shame these secretive purple amphibians don’t spend more time above ground, extolling their purplishness!
Rare Hues: Other Purple Wonders of the Animal Kingdom
Now that I’d been introduced to the purple frog, I started wondering about other truly purple animals. When Googling, several “purple” animals were identified. However, many of them are only subtly purple.
There’s the Elegant Firefish (Nemateleotris decora) with its purple head and fin stripes. Pretty, but not truly purple. The Purple Shore Crab (Hemigrapsus nudus) also came up. Ooh, I like crab meat with a little butter! The internet says these crabs can be eaten, but you’d need a lot of them. However, once again, they have some purplish tints, but aren’t really purple. A beetle with a shiny, rich, dark purple color is the Violet Ground Beetle (Carabus violaceus). Of course, it’s nocturnal, so odds of admiring it are rather slim.
From my scuba diving and snorkeling days, I do vividly remember some purple creatures. Most vivid are the purple sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus), whose spines I always tried to avoid. I’d suck in my stomach as I floated carefully over those undulating, long purple spines, so far unscathed! However, a diving mate did step on one and ended up in the emergency room having a multitude of purple spines removed from her heel.
Some of the sea slugs, or nudibranchs, are wonderfully purple: the Violet Sea Snail (Janthina janthina), the Purple Sea Slug (Hypselodoris variobranchia), and the Violet Sea Slug (Edmundsella pedate). Mollusks truly do purple so well! The starfish, the Purple Sea Star (Pisaster ochraceus), is another nicely purple creature, considered a keystone species in its neighborhood.
A couple more notable purple animals include the Violet-backed Starling (Cinnyricinclus leucogaster), a beautifully violet-colored bird found in Saharan Africa, and the Purple Emperor Butterfly (Apatura iris), whose purple sheen is created by iridescence rather than pigment.
Indeed, there are very few truly purple animals in the world. Perhaps purple is a color reserved for royalty and very special animals! Purple is considered a somewhat unusual, flamboyant color, as illustrated by the poem by Jenny Joseph, “When I am an Old Woman.” I’ve sung this poem in a song composed for women’s voices. I think I’ll definitely add a bit more purple to my wardrobe…
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