Southern leopard frog

Southern leopard frog
Near the Ozarks in Missouri
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Ranidae
Genus: Lithobates
Species:
L. sphenocephalus
Binomial name
Lithobates sphenocephalus
(Cope, 1889)
Synonyms
  • Rana sphenocephala Cope, 1886
  • Rana halecina
    Holbrook, 1842
  • Rana halecina sphenocephala
    Cope, 1886[2]
  • Rana utricularia sphenocephala
    Pace, 1974

Lithobates sphenocephalus[1][3] or Rana sphenocephala,[4][5][6] commonly known as the southern leopard frog, is a medium-sized anuran in the family Ranidae (the true frogs). The southern leopard frog is one of the 36 species currently or formerly classified in the Rana genus found in North America.[7] It is native to eastern North America from Kansas to New York to Florida. It is also an introduced species in some areas.[1] This species lives in cool, clear water in the north, whereas in the south it occurs in warmer turbid and murky waters of coastal and floodplain swamps, twilight zones of caves, and abandoned mines.[8]

  1. ^ a b c IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group (2021). "Lithobates sphenocephalus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2021: e.T58723A177496797. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-3.RLTS.T58723A177496797.en. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  2. ^ Stejneger, L.H. and T. Barbour. (1917). A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. Harvard University Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts. p. 39
  3. ^ Frost, D.-R.; et al. (2009). "Response to the Point Of View of Gregory B. Pauly, David M. Hillis, and David C. Cannatella, by the Anuran Subcommittee of the SSRA/HL/ASIH Scientific and Standard English Names List". Herpetologica. 65 (2): 136–153. doi:10.1655/09-009R1.1. S2CID 55147982.
  4. ^ Hillis & Wilcox (2005), Hillis (2007), Stuart (2008), Pauly et al. (2009), AmphibiaWeb (2016)
  5. ^ Yuan, Z.-Y.; et al. (2016). "Spatiotemporal diversification of the true frogs (genus Rana): A historical framework for a widely studied group of model organisms". Systematic Biology. 65 (5): 824–842. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syw055. hdl:2292/43460. PMID 27288482.
  6. ^ "Rana sphenocephala". amphibiaweb.org. AmphibiaWeb. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
  7. ^ Conlon, J.M.; Halverson, T.; Dulka, J.; Platz, J.E.; Knoop, F.C. (1999). "Peptides of antimicrobial activity of the brevinin-1 family isolated from skin secretions of the southern leopard frog, Rana sphenocephala". The Journal of Peptide Research. 54 (6): 522–527. doi:10.1034/j.1399-3011.1999.00123.x.
  8. ^ McAllister, Chris T.; Trauth, Stanley E.; Bursey, Charles R. (1995). "Parasites of the Pickerel Frog, Rana palustris (Anura: Ranidae), from the Southern Part of Its Range". The Southwestern Naturalist. 40 (1): 111–116. JSTOR 30054403.