THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Amphibia    Anura    Ranidae  

Southern Leopard Frog
Lithobates sphenocephalus (Cope, 1886)
LITH-oh-BAY-teez — sfee-no-SEF-uh-lus

SSAR 9th Edition 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: 2024.02.03.14.22.42)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.97 MB

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Alabama Arkansas California Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maryland Mississippi Missouri New Jersey North Carolina Oklahoma Pennsylvania South Carolina Tennessee Texas Virginia

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for the shape of its head.
Lithobates — From Greek lithos (λίθος), “stone,” and bates (βάτης), “one who walks or treads.” The name can be interpreted as “rock-walker,” possibly referencing the terrestrial habits of many species in the genus.
From Greek lithos (“stone”) and bates (“walker” or “treader”) — “rock-walker.”
sphenocephalus — From Greek sphen (σφην), “wedge,” and kephalē (κεφαλή), “head.” The name means “wedge-headed,” referring to the pointed or angular shape of the frog’s head.

First instance(s) of published English names:
Water Frog (Rana aquatica: Catesby, Mark. 1754. The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands: Containing the Figures of Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents, Insects, and Plants: Particularly the Forest-trees, Shrubs, and other Plants, not Hitherto Described, or Very Incorrectly Figured by Authors. Together with Their Descriptions in English and French. To which, are Added Observations on the Air, Soil, and Waters: with Remarks upon Agriculture, Grain, Pulse, Roots, &c. To the Whole, is Prefixed a New and Correct Map of the Countries Treated of. , London. pp.); Grunting Frog (Rana ocellata: Harlan, Richard. 1826. Descriptions of several new species of batracian reptiles, with observations on the larvae of frogs. American Journal of Science and Arts 10():53-65); Shad Frog (Rana halecina halecina: 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); 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); Leopard Frog (Rana pipiens: Rhoads, Samuel N. 1895. Contributions to the zoology of Tennessee. No. 1, Reptiles and amphibians. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 47():376-407); Common Water Frog (Rana pipiens: Beyer, George. 1900. Louisana herpetology. Proceedings of the Louisiana Society of Naturalists 1897-1899():24-46); Common Frog (Rana pipiens: Hurter, Julius. 1911. Herpetology of Missouri. Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis 20(5):59-274); Southern Leopard Frog (Rana sphenocephala: Brimley, Clement S. 1915. List of reptiles and amphibians of North Carolina. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 30(4):195-206); Southern Leopard-frog (Rana sphenocephala: Stejneger, Leonhard H. and Thomas Barbour. 1917. A Checklist of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. pp.); Sotuhern Leopard Frog (Rana sphenocephala: 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.); Spring Frog (Rana sphenocephala: 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 sphenocephala: 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.); Southern Meadow Frog (Rana sphenocephala: 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 Frog (Rana sphenocephala: 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.); Water Frog (Rana sphenocephala: 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.); Western Leopard Frog (Rana pipiens brachycephala: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Southern Leopard Frog (Rana pipiens sphenocephala: 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:
1886 Cope, Edward D. Synonymic list of the North American species of Bufo and Rana, with descriptions of some new species of Batrachia, from specimens in the National Museum. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 23(124):514-526
1920 Boulenger, George A. A monograph of the American frogs of the genus Rana. Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (55):413-480
1957 Ruibal, Rodolfo. An altitudinal and latitudinal cline in Rana pipiens. Copeia 1957(3):212-221
1971 Mecham, John S. Vocalizations of the leopard frog, Rana pipiens, and three related Mexican species. Copeia 1971(3):505-516
1974 Pace, Ann E. Systematic and biological studies of the leopard frogs (Rana pipiens complex) of the United States. Miscellaneous Publications, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan (148):1-140
1976 Brown, Lauren E., Hobart M. Smith, and Richard S. Funk. I. C. Z. N. to consider a proposal to conserve the name Rana sphenocephala Cope. Herpetological Review 7(1):5
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
1982 Schueler, Frederick W. Geographic variation in skin pigmentation and dermal glands in the northern Leopard Frog, Rana pipiens. National Museum of Natural Sciences, Ottawa, Canada. 80pp.
1982 Hillis, David M. Morphological differentiation and adaptation of the larvae of Rana berlandieri and Rana sphenocephala (Rana pipiens complex) in sympatry. Copeia 1982(1):168-174
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.
2001 Bridges, Christine M. and Raymond D. Semlitsch. Genetic variation in insecticide tolerance in a population of Southern Leopard Frogs (Rana sphenocephala): Implications for amphibian conservation. Copeia 2001(1):7-13
2011 Newman, Catherine E. and Leslie J. Rissler. Phylogeographic analyses of the Southern Leopard Frog: The impact of geography and climate on the distribution of genetic lineages vs. subspecies. Molecular Ecology 20(24):5295-5312
2016 Barrow, Lisa. Evolutionary insights from analyses of spatial genetic variation in North American frogs. Dissertation. Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida. 186pp.
2018 Barrow, Lisa N., Alan R Lemmon, and Emily Moriarty Lemmon. Targeted sampling and target capture: Assessing phylogeographic concordance with genome-wide data. Systematic Biology 67(6):979–996
2025 Chambers, E. Anne, José Daniel Lara-Tufiño, Gustavo Campillo-García, Antonio Yolocalli Cisneros-Bernal, Daniel J. Dudek Jr., Virginia León-Règagnon, Josiah H. Townsend, Oscar Flores-Villela, and David M. Hillis. Distinguishing species boundaries from geographic variation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 122(19):e2423688122

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 12 June 2026 14:31 CT