THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Amphibia    Anura    Ranidae  

Southern Mountain Yellow-legged Frog
Rana muscosa Camp, 1917
RAH-nah — mus-KOH-sah

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.

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Occurrences:; 2,119 Total; 2,042 Museum; 77 Other
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Province/State Distribution:
United States: California

Taxonomic Etymology:
Mossy frog, named for its appearance or habitat.
Rana — Latin rana = "frog"
muscosa — From Latin: muscōsus (feminine: muscosa) = “mossy”. Derived from muscus = “moss”. The suffix -osa implies “full of” or “abounding in”; “Mossy” or “moss-covered”. The name likely refers to the frog’s camouflaged, mottled appearance, which may resemble moss referring to coloration or mossy environments.

First instance(s) of published English names:
Sierra Madre Yellow-legged Frog (Rana boylii muscosa: 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.); San Bernardino Yellow-legged Frog (Rana boyli muscosa: 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:
1917 Camp, Charles L. Notes on the systematic status of the toads and frogs of California. University of California Publications in Zoology 17:115–125
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
1968 Zweifel, Richard G. Rana muscosa.. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (65):1-2
1978 Case, Susan M. Biochemical systematics of members of the genus Rana native to Western North America. Systematic Zoology 27(3):299-311
1978 Case, Susan M. Electrophoretic variation in two species of ranid frogs, Rana boylei and R. muscosa. Copeia 1978(2):311-320
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 Macey, J. Robert, Jared L. Strasburg, Jennifer A. Brisson, Bance T. Vredenburg, Mark Jennings, and Allan Larson. Molecular phylogenetics of western North American frogs of the Rana boylii species group. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 19(1):131-143
2001 Pope, Karen L. and Kathleen R. Matthews. Movement, ecology, and seasonal distribution of Mountain Yellow-Legged Frogs, Rana mucosa, in a high-elevation Sierra Nevada basin. Copeia 2001(3):787-793

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Tuesday 28 July 2026 16:41 CT