This family of mostly tropical frogs is distributed globally but is absent from Africa and Asia. The center of Hylid diversity is in tropical America where nearly three-quarters of the world's species are found. They are characterized by peculiarities in the vertebrae and shoulder girdle as well as the more easily easily distinguished feature of large adhesive discs on the fingers and toes which allow them to climb on practically any surface. The vast majority of Hylids are aboreal, although a few are aquatic or terrestrial. Many species have adapted to breed in small pools of water in tree cavities, bromiliads, or other plants.

Distributed along the Caribbean lowlands from southern Mexico to Panama, with disjunct populations on the Pacific slopes of Panama and Costa Rica, the gaudy two-inch long red-eyed leaf frog is a favorite of photographers and herpetoculturists alike. During the rainy season these frogs often congregate in large numbers in flooded aroid swamps or other bodies of standing water with leaves directly above, to breed. Like the other members of their genus and the related Phylomedusa, they glue their egg clusters onto these leaves from where the hatching tadpoles drop into the water to live out their larval stage.