THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Amphibia    Anura    Ranidae  

Crawfish Frog
Lithobates areolatus (Baird and Girard, 1852)

Current SSAR Comments:
See comment under L. capito. Geographic variation deserves further study to determine status of the nominal subspecies.

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2024.04.22.15.22.58)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.98 MB

Province/State Distribution:
USA: Alabama Arkansas Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Mississippi Missouri Oklahoma Tennessee Texas

First instance(s) of published English names:
Texas Frog (Rana areolata areolata: Yarrow, Henry C. 1882. Check list of North American Reptilia and Batrachia with catalogue of specimens in U. S. National Museum. Bulletin of the United States National Museum (24):1-249); Ringed Frog (Rana areolata: Davis, N. S., and Frank L. Rice. 1883. List of Batrachia and Reptilia of Illinois. Bulletin of the Chicago Academy of Sciences 1(3):25–32); Hoosier Frog (Rana areolata circulosa: Hay, Oliver P. 1892. Batrachians and Reptiles of the State of Indiana. Pages 409-624 in 17th Annual Report of the Indiana Department of Geology and Natural Resources, William B. Burford, Printer and Binder, Indianapolis, Indiana. pp.); Gopher Frog (Rana areolata: Hurter, Julius. 1911. Herpetology of Missouri. Transactions of the Academy of Science St. Louis 20(5):59-274); Northern Gopher Frog (Rana areolata: Wright, Anna Allen, and Alex Hazen Wright. 1933. Handbook of frogs and toads. The frogs and toads of the United States and Canada Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca, NY. xi+231pp.); Florida Frog (Rana areolata: Wright, Anna Allen, and Alex Hazen Wright. 1933. Handbook of frogs and toads. The frogs and toads of the United States and Canada Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca, NY. xi+231pp.); Gopher Frog (Rana areolata: Wright, Anna Allen, and Alex Hazen Wright. 1933. Handbook of frogs and toads. The frogs and toads of the United States and Canada Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca, NY. xi+231pp.); Texas Frog (Rana areolata: Wright, Anna Allen, and Alex Hazen Wright. 1933. Handbook of frogs and toads. The frogs and toads of the United States and Canada Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca, NY. xi+231pp.); Crayfish Frog (Rana areolata: Wright, Anna Allen, and Alex Hazen Wright. 1933. Handbook of frogs and toads. The frogs and toads of the United States and Canada Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca, NY. xi+231pp.); Hoosier Frog (Rana areolata: Wright, Anna Allen, and Alex Hazen Wright. 1933. Handbook of frogs and toads. The frogs and toads of the United States and Canada Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca, NY. xi+231pp.); Northern Gopher Frog (Rana areolata: Smith, Hobart M. 1934. The Amphibians of Kansas. American Midland Naturalist 15(4):377-527); Crawfish Frog (Rana areolata: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Southern Crawfish Frog (Rana areolata areolata: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Northern Crawfish Frog (Rana areolata circulosa: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.);

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
Amphibian Species of the World
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1852 Baird, Spencer F. and Charles Girard. Characteristics of some new reptiles in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Third part. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 6():173
1878 Rice, F. L. and N. S. Davis. R. circulosa [In Addenda]. Pages 355 in Jordan, D. S. ed., Manual of the Vertebrates of the Northern United States, Including the District East of the Mississippi River, and North of North Carolina and Tennessee, Exclusive of Marine Species. Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged. Jansen, McClurg, and Company, Chicago, Illinois.. pp.
1948 Smith, Hobart M., C. W. Nixon, and P. E. Smith. A partial description of the tadpole of Rana areolata circulosa and notes on the natural history of the race. American Midland Naturalist 39():608-614
1953 Bragg, Arthur N. A study of Rana areolata in Oklahoma. Wasmann Journal of Biology 11(3):273-318
1954 Bragg, Arthur N. A second season with Rana areolata in Oklahoma. Wasmann Journal of Biology 12(3):337-343
1961 McAlister, Wayne H. Artificial hybridization between Rana a. areolata and Rana p. pipiens from Texas. Texas Journal of Science 13(4):423-426
1970 McCarley, H. W. Rana areolata in southern Oklahoma-northern Texas. Southwestern Naturalist 15(2):261-273
1971 Cuellar, H. S. Levels of genetic compatibility of Rana areolata with southwestern members of the Rana pipiens complex (Anura: Ranidae). Evolution 25(2):399-409
1975 Collins, Joseph T. and Mary E. Dawson. Crawfish Frog re-discovered in Kansas. Kansas Herpetological Society Newsletter (7):
1983 Altig, Ronald and Ren Lohefener. Rana areolata. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (324):1-4
1985 Hillis, David M. Evolutionary genetics and systematics of New World frogs of the genus Rana: An analysis of ribosomal DNA, allozymes, and morphology. Dissertation. University of Kansas, Lawrence. pp.
1990 Busby, William H. An inventory of three prairie animals in eastern Kansas. Report 45. Kansas Biological Survey, Lawrence. 34pp.
1991 Collins, Joseph T. Viewpoint: A new taxonomic arrangement for some North American amphibins and reptiles Herpetological Review 22(2):42-43
1997 Busby, William H. and William R. Brecheisen. Chorusing phenology and habitat associations of the Crawfish Frog, Rana areolata Southwestern Naturalist 42(2):210-217
2001 Young, Jeanne E., and Brian I. Crother. Allozyme evidence for the separation of Rana areolata and Rana capito and for the resurrection of Rana sevosa. Copeia 2001(2):382-388
2004 Richter, Stephen C. Genetic studies in a demographic framework: Annual variation, inbreeding history, and effects of isolation in a rare group of amphibians. Dissertation. University of Oklahoma, Norman. 132pp.
2005 Lannoo, Michael (Editor) Amphibian Declines: The Conservation Status of United States Species. University fo California Press, Berkeley. 1115pp.
2005 Richter, Stephen C. and Richard E. Broughton. Development and characterization of polymorphic microsatellite DNA loci for the endangered dusky gopher frog, Rana sevosa, and two closely related species, Rana capito and Rana areolata. Molecular Ecology Notes 5():436-438
2010 Engbrecht, Nathan J. The status of Crawfish Frogs (Lithobates areolatus) in Indiana, and a tool to assess populations. Thesis. Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana. 89pp.
2010 Engbrecht, Nathan J. and Michael J. Lannoo. A review of the status and distribution of Crawfish Frogs (Lithobates areolatus) in Indiana. Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science 119(1):64-73
2013 Dodd, C. Kenneth. Frogs of the United States and Canada. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland. 982pp.
2014 Crother, Brian I. The bold taxonomic hypotheses of Collins (1991): 23 years later. Herpetological Review 45(2):268-272
2023 Dodd, C. Kenneth. Frogs of the United States and Canada. Second Edition. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland. 1032pp.

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Monday 24 March 2025 21:11 CT