Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
Single word	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Lithobates montezumae (Baird, 1854)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Ranidae > Genus: Lithobates > Species: Lithobates montezumae

Rana montezumae Baird, 1854, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 7: 61. Syntypes: Not stated; USNM 3344 (the number which originally included all types in a single lot), 39383-96, and MCZ 2600 (formerly USNM 39397), according to Kellogg, 1932, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 160: 198; and Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 75; USNM 3344 designated lectotype by Kellogg, 1932, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 160: 197. Type locality: "City of Mexico", Distrito Federal, Mexico.

Rana montezumae montezumae — Baird, 1854, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 7: 61, by implication.

Rana adrita Troschel In Müller, 1865, in Reisen Ver. Staaten Canada und Mexiko., 3: 616. Types: Not designated or known to exist. Type locality: "Mexiko". Restricted to "México (City)", Distrito Federal, Mexico, by Smith and Taylor, 1950, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 33: 329. Considered a nomen dubium by Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 7. Synonymy by Günther, 1900, Biol. Centr. Amer., Rept. Batr., Vol. 7, Part 153: 199; Boulenger, 1920, Proc. Am. Acad. Arts Sci., 55: 431.

Rana montezumae concolor Cope, 1887, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 32: 20. Syntypes: Not stated; USNM 10247 (4 specimens) by museum records; USNM 81101 (formerly 10247) designated lectotype by Kellogg, 1932, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 160 0: 198. Type locality: "Guanajuato", Guanajuato, Mexico. Status as subspecies rejected by Boulenger, 1920, Proc. Am. Acad. Arts Sci., 55: 431.

Rana (Rana) montezumae — Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 41-42, by implication.

Rana (Pantherana) montezumae — Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 332; Yuan, Zhou, Chen, Poyarkov, Chen, Jang-Liaw, Chou, Matzke, Iizuka, Min, Kuzmin, Zhang, Cannatella, Hillis, and Che, 2016, Syst. Biol., 65: 835.

Rana (Novirana, Sierrana, Pantherana, Stertirana, Lacusirana) montezumae — Hillis 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.

Lithobates montezumae — Frost, 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 (Lithobates) montezumae — Dubois, 2006, C. R. Biol., Paris, 329: 829. Dubois, 2006, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 42: 325.

Rana (Lacusirana) montezumae — Hillis, 2007, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 42: 335-336, by implication.

English Names

Montezuma's Frog (Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 25).

Montezuma Leopard Frog (Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 27; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 108; Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 16).

Distribution

San Luis Potosí, Queretaro, Zacatecas, Jalisco, and eastern Durango south to the southeastern edge of the Mexican Plateau in Tlaxcala, Puebla, Hidalgo, Distrito Federal, and Veracruz, Mexico.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Mexico

Endemic: Mexico

Comment

In the Rana montezumae subgroup of the Rana pipiens complex as defined by Hillis, Frost, and Wright, 1983, Syst. Zool., 32: 132–143. In the equivalent Rana (Pantherana) montezumae group of Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 332. McCranie and Wilson, 2001, Cour. Forschungsinst. Senckenb., 230: 14–15, discussed confusion between Rana chiricahuensis and Rana montezumae. Uribe-Peña, Ramírez-Bautista, and Casas-Andreu, 1999, Cuad. Inst. Biol., UNAM, 32: 34–36, provided an account. Duifhuis-Rivera and García-Vázquez, 2010, Herpetol. Rev., 41: 507–508, provided the record for Tlaxala and commented on the range. Korky and Webb, 1992, Bull. Maryland Herpetol. Soc., 28: 53–64, described the larval morphology. Lemos-Espinal and Dixon, 2013, Amphibians and Reptiles of San Luis Potosí: 71, provided an account for San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Lemos-Espinal and Smith, 2015, Check List, 11(1642): 1–11, noted the occurrence of the species in Hidalgo, Mexico, without providing a specific locality. Lemos-Espinal, Smith, and Valdes-Lares, 2019, Amph. Rept. Durango: 79–80, provided a brief account for Durango, Mexico. Lemos-Espinal and Dixon, 2016, Amph. Rept. Hidalgo: 393–394, provided a brief account and map for Hidalgo, Mexico. Ochoa-Vásquez, Rosas-Valdez, Martínez-Salazar, and Flores-Villela, 2019, MtDNA, Part A, 30: 739–748, reported on DNA phylogeography in Zacatecas, Mexico. Ahumada-Carrillo, Grünwald, López Cuellar, and Jones, 2020, Herpetol. Rev., 51: 277–278, reported the species from the municipalities of Mezquitic and Huejuquilla El Alto, northern Jalisco, Mexico. 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.

External links:

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For access to general information see Wikipedia
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For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
For information on distribution, habitat, and conservation see the Map of Life
For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist
For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.