THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Amphibia    Anura    Ranidae  

Wood Frog
Lithobates sylvaticus (LeConte, 1825)
lith-oh-BAY-tees — sil-vat-EH-kus

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: 2023.04.09.21.53.11)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 2.38 MB

Province/State Distribution:
Canada: Alberta British Columbia Labrador Manitoba New Brunswick Newfoundland Northwest Territories Nova Scotia Nunavut Ontario Prince Edward Island Quebec Saskatchewan Yukon
USA: Alabama Alaska Arkansas Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Georgia Illinois Indiana Kentucky Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Missouri New Hampshire New Jersey New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Vermont Virginia West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

First instance(s) of published English names:
Wood Frog (Rana sylvatica: LeConte, John E. 1825. Remarks on the American species of the genera Hyla and Rana. Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York 1(2):278-282); Wood-frog (Rana sylvatica: Harlan, Richard. 1827. Genera of North American Reptilia, and a synopsis of the species Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences Philidelphia 5(2):317-372); Wood Frog (Rana temporaria var. sylvatica: Jordan, David Starr. 1876. 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. Jansen, McClurg, and Company, Chicago, Illinois.. 342pp.); Wood Frog (Rana temporaria sylvatica: Coues, Elliott and Henry C. Yarrow. 1878. Notes on the natural history of Fort Macon, N. C. and Vicinity (No. 4). Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 30():21-28); Cambridge Frog (Rana temporaria cantabrigensis: 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); Cambridge Frog (Rana cantabrigensis: 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.); Wood Frog (Rana silvatica: Garman, H. 1892. A synopsis of the reptiles and amphibians of Illinois. Illinois Laboratory of Natural History Bulletin 3():215-403); Carpenter Frog (Rana virgatipes: Fowler, Henry W. 1907. The amphibians and reptiles of New Jersey. MacCrellish and Quigley, Trenton, N. J.. 29-250pp.); Sphagnum Frog (Rana virgatipes: Fowler, Henry W. 1907. The amphibians and reptiles of New Jersey. MacCrellish and Quigley, Trenton, N. J.. 29-250pp.); Sphagnum-frog (Rana virgatipes: Stejneger, Leonhard H. and Thomas Barbour. 1917. A Checklist of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. pp.); Northern Wood Frog (Rana cantabrigensis: 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.); Mexican Frog (Rana tarahumarae: 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.); Cope's Frog (Rana virgatipes: 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 Wood Frog (Rana sylvatica cantabrigensis: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Eastern Wood Frog (Rana sylvatica sylvatica: 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:
1825 LeConte, John E. Remarks on the American species of the genera Hyla and Rana. Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York 1(2):278-282
1947 Maslin, T. Paul. Rana sylvatica cantabrigensis Baird in Colorado. Copeia 1947(3):158-162
1949 Patch, Clyde L. Further northern records of the wood-frog. copeia 1949(3):233
1956 Ferguson, Denzel E. The distribution of Rana sylvatica cantabrigensis Baird in western Canada and Alaska. Herpetologica 12:132
1958 Myers, Charles W. Subspecific identity of Rana sylvatica in Missouri. Copeia 1958(1):46
1959 Martof, Bernard S. and R. L. Humphries. Geographic variation in the Wood Frog, Rana sylvatica. American Midland Naturalist 61:350-389
1966 Dumas, Philip C. Studies of the Rana species complex in the Pacific Northwest. Copeia 1966(1):60-74
1969 Porter, Kenneth R. Description of Rana maslini, a new species of wood frog. Herpetologica 25(3):212-215
1970 Martof, Bernard S. Rana sylvatica. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (86):1-4
1971 Packard, Gary C. Inconsistency in application of the biological species concept to disjunct populations of Anurans in southeastern Wyoming and northcentral Colorado. Journal of Herpetology 5(3-4):191-193
1976 Bagdonas, Karolis R., and David Pettus. Genetic compatibility in Wood Frogs (Amphibia, Anura, Ranidae). Journal of Herpetology 10(2):105-112
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.
1991 Collins, Joseph T. Viewpoint: A new taxonomic arrangement for some North American amphibins and reptiles Herpetological Review 22(2):42-43
1993 Zeyl, Clifford. Allozyme variation and divergence among populations of Rana sylvatica. Journal of Herpetology 27(2):233-236
2002 Squire, Tina, and Robert A. Newman. Fine-scale population structure in the Wood Frog (Rana sylvatica) in a northern woodland. Herpetologica 58(1):119-130
2006 Lee-Yaw, Julie A. The phylogeographic history of the Wood Frog (Rana sylvatica). Thesis. McGill University, Montreal, Canada. 90pp.
2012 D’Aoust-Messier, Andree-Michelle. Colonizing northern landscapes: Population genetics and phylogeography of Wood Frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus) in the James Bay area. Thesis. Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario. 58pp.
2014 Crother, Brian I. The bold taxonomic hypotheses of Collins (1991): 23 years later. Herpetological Review 45(2):268-272
2015 D’Aoust-Messier, Andrée-Michelle and David Lesbarrères. A peripheral view: Post-glacial history and genetic diversity of an amphibian in northern landscapes. Journal of Biogeography 42(11):2078-2088

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 13 June 2025 05:27 CT