THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Amphibia    Anura    Ranidae  

Oregon Spotted Frog
Rana pretiosa Baird and Girard, 1853
RAH-nah — preh-TEE-oh-sah

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: 2023.04.10.09.45.14)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 1.09 MB

Province/State Distribution:
Canada: British Columbia
United States: California Oregon Washington

Taxonomic Etymology:
Precious frog, possibly named for its rarity or appearance.
Rana — From Latin: rana = “frog”. Classical Latin term, widely used as the genus for true frogs in the family Ranidae
pretiosa — From Latin: pretiosa = “precious” or “valuable”. Feminine form of pretiosus, derived from pretium = “price” or “worth”. Meaning: “Precious frog” or “valuable frog”

First instance(s) of published English names:
Salmon Frog (Rana pretiosa: Cooper, James G., George Suckley, William Cooper, George Gibbs, Asa Gray, and John L. Le Conte. 1859. The natural history of Washington territory, with much relating to Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oregon, and California, between the thirty-sixth and forty-ninth parallels of latitude, being those parts of the final reports on the survey of the Northern Pacific railroad route, containing the climate and physical geography, with full catalogues and descriptions of the plants and animals collected from 1853 to 1857. Bailliere Bros., London, H. Bailliere;, New York, New York. pp.); Pacific Frog (Rana pretiosa: 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); Pacific Frog (Rana pretiosa pretiosa: 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 Frog (Rana pretiosa pretiosa: 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 Spotted Frog (Rana pretiosa pretiosa: 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 Spotted Frog (Rana pretiosa: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Red-bellied Frog (Rana pretiosa: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Western Spotted Frog (Rana pretiosa pretiosa: 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:
1853 Baird, Spencer F. and Charles Girard. No Title. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 6:378–379
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
1966 Dumas, Philip C. Studies of the Rana species complex in the Pacific Northwest. Copeia 1966(1):60-74
1972 Turner, Frederick B. and Philip C. Dumas. Rana pretiosa Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (119):1-4
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 Green, David M. Genetic divergence among populations of spotted frogs, Rana pretiosa complex. Redpath Museum, McGill University, . 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
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

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Tuesday 27 January 2026 17:21 CT