THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Amphibia    Anura    Pipidae  

African Clawed Frog
Xenopus laevis (Daudin, 1802)

Current SSAR Comments:
Native to sub-Saharan Africa, including Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is established at a golf course in Tucson, Arizona (Dodd, 2023, Frogs of the United States and Canada. Second Edition. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland); in several counties in California (Bury and Luckenbach, 1976, Biological Conservation 10: 1–14; St. Amant et al., 1973, California Fish and Game 59: 151–153); and in King, Snohomish, and Thurston counties, Washington (Ojala-Barbour et al., 2021, African Clawed Frog (Xenopus laevis) Risk Assessment, Strategic Plan, and Past Management for Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Olympia, Washington). It was introduced after the intentional release of ~200 individuals in a canal in Hialeah, Miami-Dade County, Florida, in 1964, but no frogs were found at this site thereafter (King and Krakauer, 1966, Quarterly Journal of the Florida Academy of Sciences 29: 144–154). An adult female was collected in a retention pond in Titusville, Brevard County, Florida in 2010 (Krysko et al., 2011, Zootaxa 3028: 1–64), and another frog was found in Homestead, Miami-Dade County in 2014 (Somma and Krysko, 2019, Xenopus laevis. Pages 210–212 in Krysko et al. (Editors) Amphibians and Reptiles of Florida. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida). It was initially believed that the established population in Riverview, Hillsborough County, Florida was X. laevis (Hill et al., 2017, BioInvasions Records 6: 87–94; Krysko et al., 2016, Reptiles & Amphibians. 23: 110–143; Somma and Krysko, op. cit.; Meshaka et al., 2022, Exotic Amphibians and Reptiles of the United States. University of Florida Press, Gainesville, Florida) until it was concluded to be X. tropicalis (Goodman et al., 2021, Journal of Herpetology 55: 62–69).

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2024.03.26.16.21.11)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.27 MB

First instance(s) of published English names:
No historic English names have been assigned to this taxon yet.

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
Amphibian Species of the World
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Pertinent LIterature:
1802 Daudin, Francois M. Histoire naturelle des rainettes, des grenouilles et des crapauds. [Natural history of tree frogs, frogs and toads.] Quarto version. de L'imprimerie de Bertrandet, Rue de Sorbonne, Paris, France. 468pp.
1934 Shapiro, H. A. and H. Zwarenstein. A rapid test for pregnancy on Xenopus laevis. Nature (133):762
1966 King, F. Wayne and Thomas Krakauer. The exotic herpetofauna of southeast Florida. Quarterly Journal of the Florida Academy of Sciences 29(2):144–154
1973 St. Amant, J.A., F.G. Hoover, and G.R. Stewart African Clawed Frog, Xenopus laevis laevis (Daudin), Established in California. California Fish and Game 59(2):151-153
1976 Bury, R. Bruce and Roger A. Luckenbach. Introduced amphibians and reptiles in California. Biological Conservation 10(1):1-14
1993 McCoid, Michael James, Gregory K. Pregill, and Robert M. Sullivan. Possible decline of Xenopus populations in Southern California. Herpetological Review 24(1):29-30
1993 McCoid, Michael James and T. H. Fritts. Speculations on colonizing success of the African Clawed Frog, Xenopus laevis (Pipidae), in California. South African Journal of Zoology 28(1):59-61
2004 Kuperman, B. I., V. E. Matey, R. N. Fisher, E. L. Ervin, M. L. Warburton, L. Bakhireva, and C. A. Lehman. Parasites of the African Clawed Frog, Xenopus laevis, in southern California, U.S.A. Comparative Parasitology 71(2):229-232
2011 Krysko, Kenneth L., Joseph P. Burgess, Michael R. Rochford, Christopher R. Gillette, Daniel Cueva, Kevin M. Enge, Louis A. Somma, Jennifer L. Stabile, Dustin C. Smith, Joseph A. Wasilewski, Guy N. Kieckhefer III, Michael C. Granatosky & Stuart V. Nielsen. Verified non-indigenous amphibians and reptiles in Florida from 1863 through 2010: Outlining the invasion process and identifying invasion pathways and stages. Zootaxa 3028(1):1-64
2012 Measey, G., D. Rödder, S. Green, R. Kobayashi, F. Lillo, G. Lobos, R. Rebelo and J.-M. Thirion. Ongoing invasions of the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis: A global review. Biological Invasions 14(11):2255-2270
2015 Evans, Ben J., Timothy F. Carter, Eli Greenbaum, Václav Gvoždík, Darcy B. Kelley, Patrick J. McLaughlin, Olivier S. G. Pauwels, Daniel M. Portik, Edward L. Stanley, Richard C. Tinsley, Martha L. Tobias, David C. Blackburn Genetics, morphology, advertisement calls, and historical records distinguish six new polyploid species of African Clawed Frog (Xenopus, Pipidae) from West and Central Africa. PLoS ONE 10(12):e0142823
2017 Hill, Jeffrey E., Katelyn M. Lawson, and Quenton M. Tuckett. First record of a reproducing population of the African clawed frog Xenopus laevis Daudin, 1802 in Florida (USA). Biological Invasions 6(1):87-94
2019 Krysko, Kenneth L., Kevin M. Enge, and Paul E. Moler (Editor) Amphibians and Reptiles of Florida. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. 728pp.
2021 Ojala-Barbour, Reed., Richard Visser, Timothy Quinn, and Max Lambert. African Clawed Frog (Xenopus laevis) Risk Assessment, Strategic Plan, and Past Management for Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Olympia, Washington. 43pp.
2021 Goodman, Colin M., Gregory F. M. Jongsma, Jeffrey E. Hill, Edward L. Stanley, Quenton M. Tuckett, David C. Blackburn, and Christina M. Romagosa. A case of mistaken identity: Genetic and anatomical evidence reveals the cryptic invasion of Xenopus tropicalis in Central Florida. Journal of Herpetology 55(1):62-69
2022 Meshaka, Walter E. Jr., R. Bruce Bury, Suzanne L. Collins, and Malcolm L. McCallum. Exotic Amphibians and Reptiles of the United States. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. 245pp.
2023 Dodd, C. Kenneth. Frogs of the United States and Canada. Second Edition. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland. 1032pp.

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Thursday 30 January 2025 02:39 CT