THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Amphibia    Anura    Pipidae  

Tropical Clawed Frog
Xenopus tropicalis (Gray, 1864)

Current SSAR Comments:
Newly listed species. Native to the coastal regions of southern western Africa from Gabon, west through Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cote D'Ivoire, Mali, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Senegal. Evans et al. (2015, PLoS One, 10: e0142823) revised the genus to such an extent that it leaves doubt on all prior species assignments. During the mid-1970s, a Xenopus was collected among a large complex of active and abandoned tropical fish breeding ponds in Riverview, Hillsborough County, Florida; between 2013 and 2016, four adults were collected on residential properties adjacent to the fishponds (Krysko et al., 2016, Reptiles & Amphibians. 23: 110–143; 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). In 2016, >10,000 tadpoles and metamorphs were collected in a nearby retention pond (Hill et al., 2017, BioInvasions Records 6: 87–94; Somma and Krysko. op. cit.). It was initially believed that the established population in Riverview was X. laevis (Hill et al., op. cit.; Krysko et al., op. cit.; 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: 2024.03.26.16.11.39)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.08 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:
1864 Gray, John E. Notice of a new genus (Silurana) of frogs from West Africa. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Series 3 14():315–316
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
2016 Krysko, Kenneth L., Louis A. Somma, Dustin C. Smith, Christopher R. Gillette, Daniel Cueva, Joseph A. Wasilewski, Kevin A. Enge, Steve A. Johnson, Todd S. Campbell, Jake R. Edwards, Michael R. Rochford, Rhyan T. Thompkins, Jeffrey L. Fobb, Scott Mullin, Christopher J. Lechowicz, Dalla Hazelton, and Alicie Warren. New verified nonindigenous amphibians and reptiles in Florida through 2015, with a summary of over 152 years of introductions. Reptiles & Amphibians 23(2):110–143
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 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.

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Tuesday 04 February 2025 22:09 CT