Acris crepitans Baird, 1854

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Hylidae > Subfamily: Hylinae > Genus: Acris > Species: Acris crepitans

Rana pumila LeConte, 1825, Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. New York, 1: 282. Type(s): Not designated or known to exist. Type locality: Not stated, although implied to be in the eastern USA. A nomen dubium placed here as a likely senior synonym of Acris crepitans although possibly belonging with Acris gryllus (DRF).

Acris crepitans Baird, 1854, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 7: 59. Type(s): Not designated, although presumably originally in USNM, ANSP, or Philadelphia Museum but not reported in any type lists and presumably now lost. Type locality: "Northern states generally"; restricted to Albany, Albany County, New York, USA, by Smith and Taylor, 1950, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 33: 359 (in error—a locality outside of the known range, according to Duellman, 1970, Monogr. Mus. Nat. Hist. Univ. Kansas: 647); restricted to "Potomac River at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia", USA, by Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 68, this restriction deemed invalid by Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 326, for not being based on disclosed evidence. Type locality discussed and restricted to "The Locusts, near Oyster Bay, Nassau Co[unty]., Long Island, New York", USA by Smith, Zappalorti, Breisch, and McKinley, 1995, Herpetol. Rev., 26: 14. Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 326, regarded the original publication date to be 1856, but see Fox, 1913, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Index, 1812–1912: vii–xiv.

Acris gryllus crepitans — Cope, 1875, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 1: 30.

Acris gryllus var. crepitans — Jordan, 1878, Man. Vert. North. U.S., Ed. 2: 190; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 336.

Acris crepitans crepitans — Conant, 1958, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am.: 276.

Common Names

Western Cricket (Acris crepitans: Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 23).

Cricket Frog (Hay, 1892, Annu. Rep. Dept. Geol. Nat. Res. Indiana for 1891: 461 [as Acris gryllus]; Fowler, 1907, Annu. Rep. N.J. State Mus. for 1906: 99; Wright and Wright, 1933, Handb. Frogs Toads U.S. Canada: x).

Rattler (Fowler, 1907, Annu. Rep. N.J. State Mus. for 1906: 99).

Western Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans: Strecker, 1915, Baylor Univ. Bull., 18: 49).

Northern Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans: Davis and Rice, 1883, Bull. Chicago Acad. Sci., 1: 27; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 10; Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 16; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 51; 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; Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 7; Frost, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2008, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 37: 2; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 7).

Common Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans: Viosca, 1949, Pop. Sci. Bull., Louisiana Acad. Sci., 1: 10).

Northern Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans crepitans: Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 176; Conant, 1975, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am., Ed. 2: 317; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 10; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 11).

Eastern Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans crepitans: Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 6; Frost, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2008, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 37: 2; Acris crepitans: Frost, McDiarmid, Mendelson, and Green, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 11; Frost, Lemmon, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 6).

Distribution

Southeastern New York, south along the piedmont to western Florida to southeastern Louisiana and north through Tennessee to Kentucky, USA. Isolated populations occur on the Coastal Plain of South Carolina. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: United States of America, United States of America - Alabama, United States of America - Delaware, United States of America - District of Columbia, United States of America - Florida, United States of America - Georgia, United States of America - Kentucky, United States of America - Louisiana, United States of America - Maryland, United States of America - Mississippi, United States of America - New Jersey, United States of America - New York, United States of America - North Carolina, United States of America - Pennsylvania, United States of America - South Carolina, United States of America - Tennessee, United States of America - Virginia, United States of America - West Virginia

Comment

Salthe and Nevo, 1969, Biochem. Genet., 3: 335–341, reported on geographic variation in lactate dehydrogenase. See comments under Acris blanchardi and Acris. Ryan and Wilczynski, 1991, Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 44: 249–271, reported on intraspecific variation in the advertisement call. Gray, Brown, and Blackburn, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 441–443, provided a detailed account in the sense of including Acris blanchardi. Micancin and Mette, 2009, Zootaxa, 2076: 1–36, discussed acoustic and morphological identification in sympatry with Acris gryllus. Dodd, 2013, Frogs U.S. and Canada, 1: 219–226, provided an account that summarized the literature of the species. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 190–191, provided an account of larval morphology and biology. Guyer and Bailey, 2023, Frogs and Toads of Alabama: 150–153, provided a detailed account for the species in Alabama, USA.      

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