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

Pelobates Wagler, 1830

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Pelobatidae > Genus: Pelobates

6 species

Pelobates Wagler, 1830, Nat. Syst. Amph.: 206. Type species: Bufo fuscus Laurenti, 1768, by monotypy.

Cultripes Müller, 1832, Isis von Oken, 25: 538. Type species: Cultripes cultripes Müller, 1832, by tautonomy and subsequent designation of Leunis, 1844, Synops. Drei Naturr., Zool., Ed. 1: 146. Synonymy by Duméril and Bibron, 1841, Erp. Gen., 6: 475; Günther, 1859 "1858", Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus.: 40; Schreiber, 1875, Herpetol. Eur.: 87; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 437. (Recognized by Hoffmann, 1878, in Bronn (ed.), Die Klassen und Ordnungen des Thier-Reichs, 6(2): 600.)

Didocus Cope, 1866, J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Ser. 2, 6: 81. Type species: Rana calcaratus Michahelles, 1830, by original designation. Synonymy by Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 437.

Pseudopelobates Pasteur, 1958, C. R. Hebd. Séances Acad. Sci., Paris, 247: 1037. Type species: Pelobates transcaucasicus Delwig, 1928 (= Pelobates syriacus Boettger, 1889), by original designation and monotypy. Synonymy by Kluge, 1966, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 113: 1-26.

Common Names

European Spadefoot Toads (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 96).

Distribution

Europe, western Asia, and northwestern Africa.

Comment

See comment under Scaphiopus. Dufresnes, Strachinis, Tzoras, Litvinchuk, and Denoël, 2019, ZooKeys, 859: 131–158, provided a phylogenetic study as well as discussions of morphological and molecular divergence, an identification key, and range maps. Dufresnes, Strachinis, Suriadna, Mykytynets, Cogǎlniceanu, Székely, Vukov, Arntzen, Wielstra, Lymberakis, Geffen, Gafny, Kumlutaş, Ilgaz, Candan, Mizsei, Szabolcs, Kolenda, Smirnov, Géniez, Lukanov, Crochet, Dubey, Perrin, Litvinchuk, and Denoël, 2019, Mol. Ecol., 28: 3257–3270, reported on hybrid zones and the evolution of reproductive isolation within the genus.

Contained taxa (6 sp.):

Pelobates balcanicus Karaman, 1928

Pelobates cultripes (Cuvier, 1829)

Pelobates fuscus (Laurenti, 1768)

Pelobates syriacus Boettger, 1889

Pelobates varaldii Pasteur and Bons, 1959

Pelobates vespertinus (Pallas, 1771)

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