Pseudacris Fitzinger, 1843

Common Names

Little Tree Frogs (Chorophilus [no longer recognized]: Jordan, 1878, Man. Vert. North. U.S., Ed. 2: 189; Fowler, 1907, Annu. Rep. N.J. State Mus. for 1906: 108).

Swamp Tree Toads (Pseudacris: Fowler, 1907, Annu. Rep. N.J. State Mus. for 1906: 97).

Chorus Frogs (Pseudacris: Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 176; Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 25; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 62; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 12; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 11; Frost, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2008, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 37: 9; Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 20; Frost, McDiarmid, Mendelson, and Green, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 19; Frost, Lemmon, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 16).

Fat Chorus Frogs (Pycnacris [subgenus]: Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 362). 

Stout Chorus Frogs (Pycnacris [subgenus]: Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 362). 

Western Chorus Frogs (Hyliola [no longer recognized]: Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 354). 

Distribution

North America east of the Great Basin from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico; southern Alaska, USA, to southern Baja California, Mexico, and eastward to western Texas, USA.

Comment

Dubois, 1984, Alytes, 3: 85–89, regarded Pseudacris as a subgenus of Hyla, following Noble, 1923, Am. Mus. Novit., 70: 1–6, who considered Pseudacris a junior synonym of Hyla. Hedges, 1986, Syst. Zool., 35: 11, placed former Hyla crucifer, Hyla regilla, Hyla cadaverina, and Limnaoedus ocularis in Pseudacris and discussed phylogenetic relationships. Cocroft, 1994, Herpetologica, 50: 420–437, provided a phylogenetic analysis of Pseudacris and disputed Hedges' results, although Silva, 1997, J. Herpetol., 31: 609–613, provided additional evidence and discussion in support of placing these species within Pseudacris. Moriarty and Cannatella, 2004, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 30: 409–420, discussed phylogeny in the genus. In the Hylini of Faivovich, Haddad, Garcia, Frost, Campbell, and Wheeler, 2005, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 294: 89, who recognized four groups within the genus (p. 106) noted in the species records. Lemmon, Lemmon, Collins, Lee-Yaw, and Cannatella, 2007, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 44: 1068–1082, provided results that corroborated the tree of Faivovich, Haddad, Garcia, Frost, Campbell, and Wheeler, 2005, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 294: 89, and discussed and revised the Pseudacris nigrita group. Lemmon, Lemmon, and Cannatella, 2007, Evolution, 61: 2086–2103, discussed the biogeography of the Pseudacris nigrita group. Lemmon, Lemmon, Collins, and Cannatella, 2008, Zootaxa, 1675: 45–46, also provided a summary of the phylogenetics of the Pseudacris nigrita group. Barrow, Ralicki, Emme, and Lemmon, 2014, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 75: 78–90, reported on molecular phylogenetics. Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 345–365, employed subgeneric names: 1) Pseudacris for the Pseudacris nigrita and Pseudacris brachyphona groups; 2) Hyliola for the Pseudacris regilla group; 3) Limnaoedus for the Pseudacris crucifer group; and Pycnacris for the Pseudacris ornata group. Barrow, Ralicki, Emme, and Lemmon, 2014, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 75: 78–90, reported on species tree estimation, reported on significant mtDNA and nuDNA discordance due to inter-species introgression and discussed the taxonomic difficulties associated with the Pseudacris regilla group and the relationship of nominal Pseudacris streckeri and Pseudacris illinoensis. Duellman, Marion, and Hedges, 2016, Zootaxa, 4104: 10, considered Hyliola to be a distinct genus, although Faivovich, Pereyra, Luna, Hertz, Blotto, Vásquez-Almazán, McCranie, Sánchez, Baêta, Araujo-Vieira, Köhler, Kubicki, Campbell, Frost, Wheeler, and Haddad, 2018, S. Am. J. Herpetol., 13: 15, subsequently argued against its recognition. Banker, Lemmon, Hassinger, Holland, Kortyna, Ospina, Ralicki, and Lemmon, 2020, Syst. Biol., 69: 756–773, reported on the molecular phylogenetics of the species, in the sense of including Hyliola as a synonym of Pseudacris, but without mentioning that synonymized name, with special reference to methods. Jadin, Orlofske, Jezkova, and Blair, 2021, Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 132: 612–623, provided a mtDNA analysis that they suggested supported the species distinction (as Hyliola) of Pseudacris regilla, Pseudacris sierra, and Pseudacris hypochondriaca.  

Contained taxa (17 sp.):

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.

• For access to general information see Wikipedia
• For additional sources of general information from other websites search Google
• For access to relevant technical literature search Google Scholar
• For images search CalPhoto Images and Google Images
• To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
• For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist