Aquarana heckscheri (Wright, 1924)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Ranidae > Genus: Aquarana > Species: Aquarana heckscheri

Rana heckscheri Wright, 1924, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 37: 143. Holotype: CUMV 1025; apparently lost, although Figs. 5 and 6 in Plate 38 of Wright, 1932, Life Hist. Frogs Okefinokee Swamp, 2, are of the holotype, according to Sanders, 1984, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 348: 2. Type locality: "Alligator Swamp, Callahan, [Nassau County,] Florida", USA.

Rana (Rana) heckscheriDubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 41–42, by implication.

Rana (Aquarana) heckscheriDubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 331.

Rana (Novirana, Aquarana) heckscheriHillis and Wilcox, 2005, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 34: 305. See Dubois, 2006, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 42: 317–330, Hillis, 2007, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 42: 331–338, and Dubois, 2007, Cladistics, 23: 390–402, for relevant discussion of nomenclature. Invalid name formulation under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (1999) as discussed by Dubois, 2007, Cladistics, 23: 395.

Rana (Novirana) heckscheri — Hillis and Wilcox, 2005, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 34: 305. Nomenclatural act of Hillis and Wilcox, 2005, as interpreted by Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 417. 

Lithobates heckscheriFrost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, de Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green, and Wheeler, 2006, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 297: 369; Che, Pang, Zhao, Wu, Zhao, and Zhang, 2007, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 43: 1–13; by implication.

Lithobates (Aquarana) heckscheriDubois, 2006, C. R. Biol., Paris, 329: 829; Dubois, 2006, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 42: 325.

Rana (Aquarana) heckscheriHillis, 2007, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 42: 335–336, by implication and combination made only for discussion; Yuan, Zhou, Chen, Poyarkov, Chen, Jang-Liaw, Chou, Matzke, Iizuka, Min, Kuzmin, Zhang, Cannatella, Hillis, and Che, 2016, Syst. Biol., 65: 835. 

Rana (Lithobates) heckscheri — Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 417. 

Aquarana heckscheri — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 424. 

English Names

Heckscher's Frog (Wright, 1932, Life Hist. Frogs Okefinokee Swamp, 2: 14).

River-Swamp Frog (Wright and Wright, 1933, Handb. Frogs Toads U.S. Canada: xi; Carr, 1940, Univ. Florida Biol. Sci. Ser., 3: 66).

River Swamp Bullfrog (Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 80).

River Frog (Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 177; Conant, 1975, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am., Ed. 2: 339; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 13; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 107; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 13; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 14; Frost, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2008, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 37: 8; 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: 18; Frost, Lemmon, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 15).

Distribution

Southern North Carolina and southern Mississippi to northern Florida on the coastal plain, USA; introduced into China.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: United States of America, United States of America - Alabama, United States of America - Florida, United States of America - Georgia, United States of America - Mississippi, United States of America - North Carolina, United States of America - South Carolina

Endemic: United States of America

Introduced: China, People's Republic of

Comment

In the Rana catesbeiana group of XXX. In the equivalent Rana clamitans group of Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 41, and in the equivalent subgenus Aquarana of Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 331. Reviewed by Sanders, 1984, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 348: 1–2. Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 308–309, provided a brief account and figure for the species in China. Fei and Ye, 2001, Color Handbook Amph. Sichuan: 230, provided a brief account and illustration for the introduced Chinese population. Butterfield and Lannoo, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 557–558, and Dodd, 2013, Frogs U.S. and Canada, 2 : 556–560, provided accounts that summarized relevant literature of biology, range, and conservation. Elliot, Gerhardt, and Davidson, 2009, Frogs and Toads of N. Am.: 206–207, provided an account, photos, and advertisement call. Guyer and Bailey, 2023, Frogs and Toads of Alabama: 125–127, provided a detailed account for Alabama, USA. 

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