Smilisca baudinii (Duméril and Bibron, 1841)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Hylidae > Subfamily: Hylinae > Genus: Smilisca > Species: Smilisca baudinii

Hyla Baudinii Duméril and Bibron, 1841, Erp. Gen., 6: 564. Holotype: MNHNP 4798, according to Kellogg, 1932, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 160: 160; Guibé, 1950 "1948", Cat. Types Amph. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat.: 18. Type locality: "Mexique"; restricted to "Córdoba", Veracruz, Mexico, by Smith and Taylor, 1950, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 33: 347; restricted (in error) to "Mexico City" by Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 69. These restrictions invalid according to Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 365, by reason of not being based on disclosed evidence. 

Hyla vanvlietii Baird, 1854, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 7: 61. Holotype: Not stated; USNM 3256 (as a 'type' of Smilisca baudini, apparently in error), according to Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 141; this specimen considered a likely syntype of Hyla vanvlietii by Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 60. Kellogg, 1932, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 160: 160, considered USNM 3239 to be the lost holotype. Type locality: "Brownsville, [Cameron County,] Texas", USA. Synonymy by Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 371. Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 366, regarded the original publication date to be 1856, but see Fox, 1913, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Index, 1812–1912: vii–xiv.

Hyla vociferans Baird, 1859, Rep. U.S-Mex. Bound. Surv., 2(Pt. 2-Rept.): fig. 11–13. Types: Not stated, although including figured animals in original, presumably originally in ANSP or USNM. Type locality not designated. Synonymy by Cope, 1887, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 32: 13.

Hyla muricolor Cope, 1862, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 14: 359. Holotype: likely USNM 25097 (formerly 4818) according to Kellogg, 1932, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 160: 160, and Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 56. Type locality: "[Hacienda] Mirador, Veracruz", Mexico. Synonymy by Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 371.

Smilisca daulinia Cope, 1865, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 17: 194. Holotype: "a skeleton in the private anatomical museum of Hyrtl, Professor of Anatomy in the University of Vienna". Type locality: Not designated; designated as "Córdoba", Veracruz, Mexico, by Smith and Taylor, 1950, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 33: 347. This restriction invalid due to not being based on disclosed evidence according to Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 366. Synonymy by Cope, 1866, J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Ser. 2, 6: 85, who suggested that the name "must probably be considered an erroneous orthography of the same [baudini]". Apparently Cope coined the name Smilisca daulinia as a new name even though he had taken the name from a specimen label written by someone else (DRF). See comment by Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 367, who apparently misunderstood what Cope meant by his 1866 statement. 

Smilisca baudiniiCope, 1866, J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Ser. 2, 6: 85.

Smilisca daudiniiCope, 1871, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 23: 205. Error for Smilisca baudinii.

Smilisca baudiniiCope, 1875, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 1: 31.

Hyla pansosana Brocchi, 1877, Bull. Soc. Philomath., Paris, Ser. 7, 1: 125. Holotype: MNHNP 6313, according to Guibé, 1950 "1948", Cat. Types Amph. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat.: 23. Type locality: "Pansos [= Panzós, Department of Alta Verapaz] (Rio Polochie [= Río Polochic]", Guatemala. Synonymy by Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 371.

Hyla (Smilisca) baudiniSumichrast, 1880, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 5: 190.

Hyla beltrani Taylor, 1942, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 28: 306. Holotype: EHT-HMS 29563, by original designation; now UIMNH 25046, according to Duellman, 1977, Das Tierreich, 95: 176. Type locality: "Tapachula, Chiapas", Mexico. Synonymy by Duellman and Trueb, 1966, Univ. Kansas Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist., 17: 289.

Smilisca baudini baudiniSmith, 1947, J. Washington Acad. Sci., 37: 408. 

English Names

Van Vliet's Frog (Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 24).

Mexican Tree Frog (Strecker, 1915, Baylor Univ. Bull., 18: 50; Wright and Wright, 1933, Handb. Frogs Toads U.S. Canada: x; Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 69).

Tooter (Viosca, 1949, Pop. Sci. Bull., Louisiana Acad. Sci., 1: 10).

Mexican Treefrog (Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 176; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 13; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 14; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 16; Lee, 1996, Amph. Rept. Yucatan Peninsula: 107; Frost, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2008, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 37: 12; Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 22; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 8; Frost, McDiarmid, Mendelson, and Green, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 21).

Mexican Smilisca (Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 69).

Common Mexican Treefrog (Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 28; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 64; Lee, 2000, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Maya World: 111; Hedges, Powell, Henderson, Hanson, and Murphy, 2019, Caribb. Herpetol., 67: 14). 

Baudin's Treefrog (Campbell, 1998, Amph. Rept. N. Guatemala Yucatan Belize: 86).

Distribution

Extreme southern Texas (USA) and southern Sonora and southwestern Chihuahua (Mexico) south (including the Balsas Depression of Mexico) in tropical lowlands to Costa Rica on the Pacific slope; Tres Marias Islands off the coast of Nayarit, Mexico; seemingly introduced into Bexar and Refugio counties in southeast-central Texas, USA. See comment. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, United States of America, United States of America - Texas

Comment

Reviewed by Duellman, 1968, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 59: 1–2, Duellman, 1970, Monogr. Mus. Nat. Hist. Univ. Kansas: 594–598, and Duellman, 2001, Hylid Frogs Middle Am., Ed. 2: 996–997 (who posited that Smilsca baudinii is the sister species of Triprion plus Pternohyla, rendering Smilisca paraphyletic). Lips and Savage, 1996, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 109: 17–26, included this species in a key to the tadpoles found in Costa Rica. See also Lee, 1996, Amph. Rept. Yucatan Peninsula: 107–110, Campbell, 1998, Amph. Rept. N. Guatemala Yucatan Belize: 86–87, and Lee, 2000, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Maya World: 111–114, for accounts. See accounts by Savage, 2002, Amph. Rept. Costa Rica: 349–351, and McCranie and Wilson, 2002, Amph. Honduras: 331–338. Mendoza-Quijano, Mejenes-López, Reynoso-Rosales, Estrada-Hernandez, and Rodriguez-Blanco, 2001, Anal. Inst. Biol., Univ. Nac. Aut. Mexico, Ser. Zool., 72: 233–243, provided a record from Guanajuato. Köhler, Veselý, and Greenbaum, 2005 "2006", Amph. Rept. El Salvador: 50–52, provided an account (for El Salvador) and a color photograph. McCranie, 2007, Herpetol. Rev., 38: 38, summarized the departmental distribution in Honduras (see also Smilisca manisorum). Casas-Andreu, 1990, Herpetol. Rev., 21: 38, provided the record for Isla María Madre, Nayarit, Mexico. See comments by Sunyer, Páiz, Dehling, and Köhler, 2009, Herpetol. Notes, 2: 189–202, regarding Nicaraguan populations (see Smilisca manisorum). Lemos-Espinal, 2007, Anf. Rept. Chihuahua Mexico: 48–49, provided an account for Chihuahua, Mexico. Lemos-Espinal and Smith, 2007, Anf. Rept. Coahuila México: 46–47, provided an account for Coahuila, Mexico. Valdes-Lares, Martín-Muñoz de Cote, and Muñiz-Martínez, 2013, Herpetol. Rev., 44: 648, provided new records for Durango, Mexico. Malone, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 489–491, and Dodd, 2013, Frogs U.S. and Canada, 1: 431–435, provided accounts that summarized the relevant literature and range. Köhler, 2011, Amph. Cent. Am.: 265–268, provided a brief summary of natural history and identification key for the species of Smilisca in Central America and provided a range map and photograph for this species (in the sense of including Smilisca manisorum). Elliot, Gerhardt, and Davidson, 2009, Frogs and Toads of N. Am.: 124–125, provided an account, photos, and advertisement call. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 212–213, provided an account of larval morphology and biology. Nolasco Luna, López Luna, Cupul Magaña, and Escobedo Galván, 2016, Cienc. Mar., 20 (58): 29–33, reported the species from María Cleofas in the Tres Marías Islands, Nayarit, Mexico. Records from the Atlantic versant from northeastern Honduras, eastern Nicaragua, and eastern Costa Rica apparently all can be referred to Smilisca manisorum, although the contact zones of Smilisca baudini and Smilisca baudini has been incompletely elucidated. Lemos-Espinal, Smith, and Valdes-Lares, 2019, Amph. Rept. Durango: 71–72, provided a brief account for Durango, Mexico. Lemos-Espinal and Dixon, 2016, Amph. Rept. Hidalgo: 380–381, provided a brief account and map for Hidalgo, Mexico. Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal, 2016, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Sonora: 164–166, provided a detailed account of natural history, morphology, distribution, and conservation status in Sonora, Mexico. Found on Islas Maria Madre  and María Cleofas in the Tres Marias Archipelago of Nayarit, Mexico, according to Nolasco Luna, Barraza-Soltero, López-Montes, Moreno-López, and Escobedo Galván, 2022, Check List, 18: 244. Tepos-Ramírez, Garduño-Fonseca, Peralta-Robles, García-Rubio, and Cervantes Jiménez, 2023, Check List, 19: 269–292, discussed the distribution and conservation status of the species in Queretaro, Mexico. Bassett, 2023, Reptiles & Amphibians, 30(e18486): 1–18, provided an updated county distribution map for Texas, USA. Martínez-Fonseca, Holmes, Sunyer, Westeen, Grundler, Cerda, Fernández-Mena, Loza-Molina, Monagan, Nondorf, Pandelis, and Rabosky, 2024, Check List, 20: 64, provided and discussed a record from Las Brisas del Mogotón, Departamento Nueva Segovia, Nicaragua. 

External links:

Please note: these links will take you to external websites not affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History. We are not responsible for their content.