Pseudacris ocularis (Holbrook, 1838)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Hylidae > Subfamily: Hylinae > Genus: Pseudacris > Species: Pseudacris ocularis

Hylodes ocularis Holbrook, 1838, N. Am. Herpetol., 3: 79. Types: Not designated or known to exist. Type locality: "South Carolina and Georgia", USA. Considered by Mittleman, 1946, Herpetologica, 3: 57-60, to be the first description of this species, the earlier name Hyla ocularis representing a species of Acris.

Chorophilus angulatus Cope, 1875, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 1: 30. Types: Not designated, description by indication on Cystignathus ocularis Holbrook, 1842, N. Am. Herpetol., Ed. 2, 4: 137. Type locality: Given by Cope as "South Carolina", given earlier by Holbrook as "South Carolina and Georgia", USA; restricted to the "vicinity of Charleston, South Carolina", USA, by Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 71. Synonymy by Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 333.

Cystignathus ocularis — Cope, 1875, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 1: 27.

Chorophilus ocularis — Cope, 1875, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 1: 30. Based on specimen of Pseudacris ornata (as Chorophilus copii) according to Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 334; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 333.

Pseudacris ocularis — Stejneger and Barbour, 1917, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept.: 31; Noble, 1923, Am. Mus. Novit., 70: 1; Carr, 1940, Univ. Florida Biol. Sci. Ser., 3: 57.

Hyla ocularis — Noble, 1923, Am. Mus. Novit., 70: 5, by implication; Harper, 1939, Am. Midl. Nat., 22: 139-144.

Acris ocularis — Mittleman, 1946, Herpetologica, 3: 59. Based on the view that Hyla ocularis Bosc and Daudin represents Acris gryllus of this list, rather than that currently referred to as Pseudacris ocularis. This view disputed by Neill, 1950, Am. Midl. Nat., 43: 156.

Limnaoedus ocularis — Mittleman and List, 1953, Copeia, 1953: 83.

Pseudacris ocularis — Hedges, 1986, Syst. Zool., 35: 11; Silva, 1997, J. Herpetol., 31: 609–613; Cocroft, 1994, Herpetologica, 50: 420-437.

Pseudacris (Limnaoedus) ocularis — Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 360. 

Common Names

Black-spotted Tree Frog (Chorophilus angulatus [no longer recognized]: Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 23).

Tree Frog (Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 24).

Little Chorus Frog (Wright, 1932, Life Hist. Frogs Okefinokee Swamp, 2: 13; Wright and Wright, 1933, Handb. Frogs Toads U.S. Canada: x).

Least Tree Frog (Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 71).

Little Grass Frog (Carr, 1940, Univ. Florida Biol. Sci. Ser., 3: 57; 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: 326; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 12; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 63; 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: 12; Frost, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2008, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 37: 10; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 7; Frost, McDiarmid, Mendelson, and Green, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 20; Frost, Lemmon, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 18).

Distribution

Coastal plain of southeastern Virginia to western and peninsular Florida and extreme southeastern Alabama, USA.

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 - North Carolina, United States of America - South Carolina, United States of America - Virginia

Endemic: United States of America

Comment

In the Pseudacris crucifer group of of Faivovich, Haddad, Garcia, Frost, Campbell, and Wheeler, 2005, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 294: 106. Reviewed, as Limnaoedus ocularis, by Franz and Chantell, 1978, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 209: 1–2. Regarded as a nomen dubium by Nieden, 1923, Das Tierreich, 46: 36. See nomenclatural discussion by Mittleman, 1946, Herpetologica, 3: 57–60, who considered Hyla ocularis Bosc and Daudin, 1801, to be a senior synonym of Acris gryllus or Acris crepitans. Cocroft and Ryan, 1995, Animal Behav., 49: 283–303, discussed advertisement call in an evolutionary context. Jensen, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 475–477, and Dodd, 2013, Frogs U.S. and Canada, 1: 391–395, provided accounts that summarized the relevant literature and range. Elliot, Gerhardt, and Davidson, 2009, Frogs and Toads of N. Am.: 80–81, provided an account, photos, and advertisement call. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 206–207, provided an account of larval morphology and biology. See account of biology and life history in southern Florida by Meshaka and Lane, 2015, Herpetol. Conserv. Biol., 10 (Monogr. 5): 63–67. Guyer and Bailey, 2023, Frogs and Toads of Alabama: 161–163, provided a detailed account for the species in Alabama, USA. 

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