Ascaphus Stejneger, 1899

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Ascaphidae > Genus: Ascaphus
2 species

Ascaphus Stejneger, 1899, Proc. U.S. Natl. Mus., 21: 899. Type species: Ascaphus truei Stejneger, 1899, by original designation.

English Names

Tailed Frogs (Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 5; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 10; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 38; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 7; Frost, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2008, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 37: 4; Frost, McDiarmid, Mendelson, and Green, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 14; Frost, Lemmon, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 9).

Bell Toads (Stebbins, 1951, Amph. W. North Am.: 187).

Distribution

Extreme southwestern Canada and coastal northwestern USA to northern California; western Montana and northern Idaho to northeastern Oregon and southwestern Washington, USA.

Comment

Green, Daugherty, and Bogart, 1980, Herpetologica, 36: 346-352, discussed karyology and relationships. Green and Cannatella, 1993, Ethol. Ecol. Evol., 5: 233–245, discussed relationships with relevant fossils and other frogs. Nielson, Lohman, and Sullivan, 2001, Evolution, 55: 147–160, reported on mtDNA variation among the isolated populations in the Pacfic Northwest, noted that Ascaphus truei as then recognized is composed of at least two species, and recognized these as Ascaphus truei and Ascaphus montanus. Karraker, Pilliod, Adams, Bull, Corn, Diller, Dupuis, Hayes, Hossack, Hodgson, Hyde, Lohman, Norman, Ollivier, Pearl, and Peterson, 2006, Northwest. Nat., 87: 87–97, noted ecological differences between Ascaphus montanus and Ascaphus truei. Powell, Collins, and Hooper, 2011, Key Herpetofauna U.S. & Canada, 2nd Ed.: 37, provided a key to the species. Dodd, 2013, Frogs U.S. and Canada, 1: 1–16, summarized the pertinent literature of the species. 

Contained taxa (2 sp.):

Ascaphus montanus Mittleman and Myers, 1949
Ascaphus truei Stejneger, 1899

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