THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Amphibia    Anura    Ranidae  

Columbia Spotted Frog
Rana luteiventris Thompson, 1913
RAH-nah — loo-tee-ven-TRISS

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: 2023.12.19.08.18.16)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.34 MB

Province/State Distribution:
Canada: Alberta British Columbia Yukon
United States: Alaska Idaho Montana Nevada Oregon Utah Washington Wyoming

Taxonomic Etymology:
Yellow-bellied frog, named for its distinctive ventral coloration.
Rana — Latin rana = "frog"
luteiventris — From Latin: luteus = “yellow”; venter, ventris = “belly”; “Yellow-bellied” or “yellow underside”. Refers to the species’ characteristic yellowish coloring on the underside, which helps distinguish it from related taxa

First instance(s) of published English names:
Nevada Spotted Frog (Rana pretiosa luteiventris: 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.); Great Basin Spotted Frog (Rana pretiosa luteiventris: 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:
1913 Thompson, H. B. Description of a new subspecies of Rana pretiosa from Nevada. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 26:53–55
1958 Turner, Frederick B. Life-history of the western spotted frog in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Herpetologica 14:96-100
1966 Dumas, Philip C. Studies of the Rana species complex in the Pacific Northwest. Copeia 1966(1):60-74
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.
1997 Green, David M., Hinrich Kaiser, Timothy F. Sharbel, Jennifer Kearsley, and Kelly R. McAllister. Cryptic species of spotted frogs, Rana pretiosa complex, in Western North America. Copeia 1997(1):1-8
2009 Greene, Allison E. and W. Chris Funk. Sexual selection on morphology in an explosive breeding amphibian, the Columbia Spotted Frog (Rana luteiventris) . Journal of Herpetology 43(2):244-251

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 05 December 2025 15:56 CT