THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Amphibia    Anura    Ranidae  

Plains Leopard Frog
Lithobates blairi (Mecham, Littlejohn, Oldham, Brown, and Brown, 1973)

Current SSAR Comments:
There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.04.09.21.41.44)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 1.1 MB

Province/State Distribution:
USA: Arizona Arkansas Colorado Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Missouri Nebraska New Mexico Oklahoma South Dakota Texas

First instance(s) of published English names:
Common Frog (Rana halecina: 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); Common Frog (Rana pipiens: Hurter, Julius. 1911. Herpetology of Missouri. Transactions of the Academy of Science St. Louis 20(5):59-274); Leopard Frog (Rana pipiens: Hurter, Julius. 1911. Herpetology of Missouri. Transactions of the Academy of Science St. Louis 20(5):59-274); Leopard-frog (Rana pipiens: Stejneger, Leonhard H. and Thomas Barbour. 1917. A Checklist of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. pp.); Leopard Frog (Rana pipiens pipiens: 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.); Common Frog (Rana pipiens pipiens: 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.); Shad Frog (Rana pipiens pipiens: 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.); Meadow Frog (Rana pipiens pipiens: 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.); Spotted Green Frog (Rana pipiens pipiens: 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.); Herring-hoppers (Rana pipiens pipiens: 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.);

Taxon Links:

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

Selected References:
1957 Ruibal, Rodolfo. An altitudinal and latitudinal cline in Rana pipiens. Copeia 1957(3):212-221
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
1971 Mecham, John S. Vocalizations of the leopard frog, Rana pipiens, and three related Mexican species. Copeia 1971(3):505-516
1972 Platz, James E. Sympatric interaction between two forms of leopard frog (Rana pipiens complex) in Texas. Copeia 1972(2):232-240
1973 Mecham, John S., Murray J. Littlejohn, Robert S. Oldham, Lauren E. Brown, and Jill R. Brown. A new species of the Leopard Frog (Rana pipiens complex) from the plains of the central United States. Occasional Papers the Museum Texas Tech University (18):1-11
1981 Hillis, David M. Premating isolating mechanisms among three species of the Rana pipiens complex in Texas and southern Oklahoma. Copeia 1981(2):312-319
1983 Hillis, David M., John S. Frost, and D. A. Wright. Phylogeny and biogeography of the Rana pipiens complex: A biochemical evaluation. Systematic Zoology 32(2):132-143
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.
1992 Brown, Lauren E. Rana blairi. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (536):1-6
2005 Smith, Brian E. and Douglas A. Keinath. Plains Leopard Frog (Rana blairi): A technical conservation assessment. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region. 47pp.
2013 Dodd, C. Kenneth. Frogs of the United States and Canada. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland. 982pp.
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 20:48 CT