Ascaphus truei Stejneger, 1899

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Ascaphidae > Genus: Ascaphus > Species: Ascaphus truei

Ascaphus truei Stejneger, 1899, Proc. U.S. Natl. Mus., 21: 900. Holotype: USNM 25979. Type locality: "Humptulips, [Gray's Harbor County,] Washington", USA.

Ascaphus truei truei — Mittleman and Myers, 1949, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 62: 62.

Ascaphus truei californicus Mittleman and Myers, 1949, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 62: 63. Holotype: MVZ 19142, by original designation. Type locality: "near Klamath, Del Norte County, Calif[ornia].", USA. See comment.

Common Names

American Discoglossoid Toad (Dickerson, 1906, The Frog Book: 51).

American Bell Toad (Storer, 1925, Univ. California Publ. Zool., 27: 43; Wright and Wright, 1933, Handb. Frogs Toads U.S. Canada: ix; Stebbins, 1951, Amph. W. North Am.: 126).

American Ribbed Toad (Slevin, 1928, Occas. Pap. California Acad. Sci., 16: 79; Wright and Wright, 1933, Handb. Frogs Toads U.S. Canada: 36).

Bell's Toad (Vincent, 1947, Nature Notes from Crater Lake, 13: 20).

Tailed Frog (Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 57; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 5; Stebbins, 1966, Field Guide W. North Am. Rept. Amph.: 54; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 10; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 38; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 11; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 6).

California Tailed Frog (Ascaphus truei californicus [no longer recognized]: Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 57; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 5).

Olympic Tailed Frog (Ascaphus truei truei [no longer recognized]: Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 57; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 5).

Coastal Tailed Frog (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: 10).

Pacific Tailed Frog (Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 8).

Distribution

Southwestern British Columbia (Canada) south in high-gradient stream areas through western Washington, western Oregon, and into northwestern California (USA).

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Canada, United States of America, United States of America - California, United States of America - Oregon, United States of America - Washington

Comment

See account by Metter, 1968, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 69: 1–2 (including what is now Ascaphus montanus). Metter, 1964, Copeia, 1964: 181–195, rejected subspecies (including what is now Ascaphus montanus) but noted extensive morphological variation over relatively short geographic distances. Nielson, Lohman, and Sullivan, 2001, Evolution, 55: 147–160, noted strong phylogeographic loyalty to various mountain ranges of which the Oregon Coast Range forms the sister taxon of the Siskiyous, Olympics, and Northern Cascades. Nielson, Lohman, Daugherty, Allendorf, Knudsen, and Sullivan, 2006, Herpetologica, 62: 235–258, supported the previous distinction of Ascaphus montanus and Ascaphus truei, and noted that two "Evolutionarily Significant Units" (i.e., species under phylogenetic or evolutionary definitions—DRF): 1) populations from the Olympic Mountains, and 2) populations south of the Umpqua River in Washington. Dodd, 2013, Frogs U.S. and Canada, 1: 7–16, provided an account that summarized relevant literature. Adams and Pearl, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 382–385, provided a detailed but compact account.  Elliot, Gerhardt, and Davidson, 2009, Frogs and Toads of N. Am.: 302–303, provided an account and photos. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 214–216, provided an account of larval morphology and biology. Grummer and Leaché, 2017, Conserv. Genetics, 18: 439–451, reported on landscape genetics in the North Cascades National Park Service Complex, Washington, USA. Hobbs, Round, Allison, and Helbing, 2019, PLoS One, 14(3: e0213849): 1–16, detailed the range of the species on southwestern British Columbia, Canada, using an environmental DNA capture and analysis method that proved more effective than physical searching. 

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.