Pelobates vespertinus (Pallas, 1771)

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

Rana vespertina Pallas, 1771, Reise Vers. Prov. Russ. Reich, 1: 458. Type(s): Not designated. Type locality: Not designated; given as "Sibiria" by Schneider, 1799, Hist. Amph. Nat.: 225; given as Sarbai River in the area of Ilmen Village, Samara (Kuibyschew), Russia by Kuzmin, 1999, Amph. Former Soviet Union: 212. 

Bufo vespertinus — Schneider, 1799, Hist. Amph. Nat.: 225.

Pelobates fuscus var. orientalis Severtsov, 1855, Periodicheskie Yavleniya v Zhizni Zhivotnykh Voronezhskoi Gubernii: 385–386. Types: Not designated although presumably originally ZMM. Type locality: Voronezh Province, Russia. Synonymy by implication of Suryadnaya, 2014, Vestn. Zool., Kiev, 48: 511, and formally by Dufresnes, Strachinis, Tzoras, Litvinchuk, and Denoël, 2019, ZooKeys, 859: 141. 

Pelobates campestris Severtsov, 1855, Periodicheskie Yavleniya v Zhizni Zhivotnykh Voronezhskoi Gubernii: 385–386. Substitute name for Pelobates fuscus var. orientalis Severtsov, 1913. Synonymy with Pelobates fuscus by Nikolskii, 1918, Fauna Rossii, Zemnovodnye: 154, with Pelobates vespertinus by implication of Suryadnaya, 2014, Vestn. Zool., Kiev, 48: 511, and formally by Dufresnes, Strachinis, Tzoras, Litvinchuk, and Denoël, 2019, ZooKeys, 859: 141. 

Pelobates borkini Zagorodniuk, 2003, Visnyk of L'viv Univ., Biol. Ser., 33: 80–90. Nomen nudum. Synonymy by Dufresnes, Strachinis, Tzoras, Litvinchuk, and Denoël, 2019, ZooKeys, 859: 141. 

Pelobates fuscus vespertinus — Crochet and Dubois, 2004, In Gasc et al. (eds)., Atlas Amph. Rept. Europe, Ed. 2: 498; Crottini, Andreone, Kosuch, Borkin, Litvinchuk, Eggert, and Veith, 2007, Mol. Ecol., 16: 2750.

Pelobates vespertinus — Suryadnaya, 2014, Vestn. Zool., Kiev, 48: 511. 

Common Names

Pallas' Spadefoot Toad (Speybroeck, Beukema, Bok, and Van Der Voort, 2016, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Brit. Eur.: 139). 

Distribution

Extreme western European Russia, southern and eastern Ukraine and the Crimea east and north and west to extreme southwestern Western Siberia and northwestern Kazakhstan. See comment

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine

Comment

Removed from the synonymy of Pelobates fuscus by Suryadnaya, 2014, Vestn. Zool., Kiev, 48: 511, where it had been placed by Fatio, 1872, Fauna Vert. Suisse, 3: 376; Schreiber, 1875, Herpetol. Eur.: 90; Kuzmin, 1996, Adv. Amph. Res. Former Soviet Union, 1: 54. Still considered a subspecies of Pelobates fuscus by some authors; there is a hybrid zone in northeastern Ukraine and the Russian province of Kursk. Most literature dealing with this species is covered in the comment under Pelobates fuscus, which in the strict sense is found west of Pelobates vespertinus. See that account for pre-2019 literature. See accounts by Kuzmin, 1999, Amph. Former Soviet Union: 212-221. Borkin, Litvinchuk, Milto, Rosanov, and Khalturin, 2001, Dokl. Biol. Sci., 376: 86-88,  Borkin, Litvinchuk, Rosanov, and Milto, 2002 "2001", Amphibia-Reptilia, 22: 387-396, and Khalturin, Litvinchuk, Borkin, Rozanov, and Milto, 2003, Tsitologiia, Novosibirsk, 45: 308–323, presented evidence suggested that two species are covered under the name Pelobates fuscus fuscus, with the boundary between the two in eastern Ukraine and European Russia, and noting that the oldest name for the eastern form would be Pelobates vespertinus (Pallas, 1771), should the two populations prove to be different species which they turned out to be. Borkin, Litvinchuk, Rosanov, Khalturin, Lada, Borissovsky, Faizulin, Kotserzhinskaya, Novitsky, and Ruchin, 2003, Russ. J. Herpetol., 10: 111-118, refined the geographic distribution of the two populations. Mazanaeva and Askenderov, 2007, Russ. J. Herpetol., 14: 161-166, discussed the range in Dagestan, Russia. Cogǎlniceanu, Székely, Samoilă, Iosif, Tudor, Plăiaşu, Stănescu, and Rozylowicz, 2013, ZooKeys, 296: 35-57, provided a dot map for Romania. Litvinchuk, Crottini, Federici, de Pous, Donaire-Barroso, Andreone, Kalezić, Džukić, Lada, Borkin, and Rosanov, 2013, Organisms Divers. Evol., 13: 433–451, reported on the biogeography and narrow contact zone of two historical lineages, which they termed Pelobates fuscus fuscus and Pelobates fuscus vespertinus. Suryadnaya, 2014, Vestn. Zool., Kiev, 48: 511–520, noted karyological differences between the two nominal races (Pelobates fuscus fuscus and Pelobates fuscus vespertinus) and considered the two taxa as species with a narrow hybrid zone. Speybroeck, Beukema, Bok, and Van Der Voort, 2016, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Brit. Eur.: 139–140, provided a brief account. Dufresnes, Strachinis, Tzoras, Litvinchuk, and Denoël, 2019, ZooKeys, 859: 131–158, reported on the range and relationships with other species of Pelobates.  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 the hybrid zone with Pelobates fuscus. See Dufresnes, 2019, Amph. Eur., N. Afr., & Middle East: 57, for brief summary of identifying morphology and biology, a range map (in error the map for Pelobates syriacus), as well as a photograph. Bulakhova, Alfimov, and Berman, 2020, Herpetozoa, Wien, 33: 171–175, reported on the determinants of the range and provided a range map. 

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.