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

Leptodactylus melanonotus (Hallowell, 1861)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Leptodactylidae > Subfamily: Leptodactylinae > Genus: Leptodactylus > Species: Leptodactylus melanonotus

Cystignathus melanonotus Hallowell, 1861 "1860", Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 12: 485. Holotype: USNM 6264 according to Kellogg, 1932, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 160: 88, apparently lost, according to Heyer, 1970, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 191: 9; KU 84848 designated neotype by Heyer, 1970, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 191: 11. Type locality: "Nicaragua"; restricted to "Recero, Nicaragua", by Smith and Taylor, 1950, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 33: 320; this restriction vigorously disputed by Dunn and Stuart, 1951, Copeia, 1951: 58. Neotype from "Nicaragua, Zelaya, Bonanza".

Cystignathus echinatus Brocchi, 1877, Bull. Soc. Philomath., Paris, Ser. 7, 1: 181. Syntypes: MNHNP 6322-23, according to Guibé, 1950 "1948", Cat. Types Amph. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat.: 30. Type locality: "Rio Madre Nieja [Vieja?] (Guatemala occidental)". Synonymy by Heyer, 1970, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 191: 9.

Cystignathus microtis Cope, 1879, Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., 18: 265. Syntypes: USNM 9906,9908, and 9909, according to Heyer, 1970, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 191: 9. However, Kellogg, 1932, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 160: 88, considered USNM 9906 the "type", and Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 40, considered, in error, USNM 9906 to be the "holotype". Type locality: "Guanajuato", Mexico (presumed to be in error by Heyer, 1970, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 191: 12). Restricted to "Apatzingán (de la Constitución)", Michoacán, Mexico, by Smith and Taylor, 1950, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 33: 335. Synonymy by Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 40; Heyer, 1970, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 191: 9.

Cystignathus perlaevis Cope, 1879, Am. Nat., 13: 269. Holotype: USNM 10041 by original designation and according to Kellogg, 1932, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 160: 89. Type locality: "near a well near Japana", Oaxaca, Mexico, = Tapanatepec according to Smith and Taylor, 1948, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 194: 57; = Tapana, Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico, according to Heyer, 1970, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 191: 40. Synonymy by Kellogg, 1932, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 160: 89; Heyer, 1970, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 191: 40; Heyer, 1970, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 191: 12.

Leptodactylus echinatus — Brocchi, 1881, Miss. Scient. Mex. Amer. Centr., Rech. Zool., 3(2, livr. 1): 20.

Leptodactylus melanonotus — Brocchi, 1881, Miss. Scient. Mex. Amer. Centr., Rech. Zool., 3(2, livr. 1): 20.

Leptodactylus microtis — Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 244.

Leptodactylus perlaevis — Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 215.

Leptodactylus occidentalis Taylor, 1937 "1936", Trans. Kansas Acad. Sci., 39: 349. Holotype: EHT 3322, by original designation; now FMNH 100015 according to Marx, 1976, Fieldiana, Zool., 69: 57. Type locality: "Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico". Synonymy by Heyer, 1970, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 191: 9.

English Names

Sabinal Frog (Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 25; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 82; Lee, 2000, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Maya World: 78; Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 15).

Mexican River Frog (Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 89).

Black-backed Frog (Lee, 1996, Amph. Rept. Yucatan Peninsula: 71).

Fringe-toed Foamfrog (Campbell, 1998, Amph. Rept. N. Guatemala Yucatan Belize: 62).

Black Jungle-Frog (Arteaga-Navarro, Bustamante, and Guayasamin, 2013, Amph. Rept. Mindo: 115).

Reddish-brown White-lipped Frog (Hedges, Powell, Henderson, Hanson, and Murphy, 2019, Caribb. Herpetol., 67: 14).

Distribution

Central Sonora and southern Tamaulipas, Mexico, south through dry tropical and humid premontane habitats through Central America to southwestern Ecuador.

Comment

In the Leptodactylus melanonotus group of Heyer, 1970, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 191: 9–14, Lee, 1996, Amph. Rept. Yucatan Peninsula: 71–73, Campbell, 1998, Amph. Rept. N. Guatemala Yucatan Belize: 62–63, Lee, 2000, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Maya World: 78–80, Savage, 2002, Amph. Rept. Costa Rica: 215–217, and McCranie and Wilson, 2002, Amph. Honduras: 446–451. Lips and Savage, 1996, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 109: 17–26, included this species n a key to the tadpoles found in Costa Rica. Köhler, Veselý, and Greenbaum, 2005 "2006", Amph. Rept. El Salvador: 58–60, provided an account (for El Salvador) and a color photograph. McCranie, 2007, Herpetol. Rev., 38: 38, summarized the departmental distribution in Honduras. See comments by Sunyer, Páiz, Dehling, and Köhler, 2009, Herpetol. Notes, 2: 189–202, regarding Nicaraguan populations. Lemos-Espinal and Dixon, 2013, Amphibians and Reptiles of San Luis Potosí: 63–64, provided an account for San Luis Potosí, Mexico.. Farr, Lazcano, and Lavín-Murcio, 2013, Herpetol. Rev., 44: 634, discussed the range in Tamaulipas, Mexico, and corrected several literature records. Arteaga-Navarro, Bustamante, and Guayasamin, 2013, Amph. Rept. Mindo: 115–117, provided an account and dot map for Ecuador. Köhler, 2011, Amph. Cent. Am.: 276–281, provided a brief summary of natural history and identification key for the species of Leptodactylus in Central America and provided a range map and photograph for this species. In the Leptodactylus melanonotus species group of de Sá, Grant, Camargo, Heyer, Ponssa, and Stanley, 2014, S. Am. J. Herpetol., 9(Spec. Issue 1): 1–123, and who provided a summary of relevant literature (adult and larval morphology, identification, advertisement call, and range) on pp. 77–78. 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 and Dixon, 2016, Amph. Rept. Hidalgo: 386–387, provided a brief account and map for Hidalgo, Mexico. Armijos-Ojeda, Székely, Székely, Cogǎlniceanu, Cisneros-Heredia, Ordóñez-Delgado, Escudero, and Espinosa, 2021, ZooKeys, 1063: 38, provided a dot map for the seemingly isolated population in western lowland Ecuador. Carvalho, Fouquet, Lyra, Giaretta, Costa-Campos, Rodrigues, Haddad, and Ron, 2022, Syst. Biodiversity, 20 (1: 2089269): 1–31, reported on the systematics, phylogenetics, ane advertisement call.

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To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
For related information on conservation and images as well as observation see iNaturalist
For additional information specific to Ecuador see FaunaWebEcuador: Anfibios del Ecuador
For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.