Pelodytes punctatus (Daudin, 1802)

Common Names

Parsley Frog (Arnold and Burton, 1978, Field Guide Rept. Amph. Brit. Eur.: 71; Stumpel-Rienks, 1992, Ergänzungsband Handbuch Rept. Amph. Eur., Trivialnamen der Herpetofauna Eur.: 53; Guyetant, 1997, in Gasc et al. (eds.), Atlas Amph. Rept. Eur.: 116; Arnold, 2002, Rept. Amph. Eur., Ed. 2: 71).

Mud-diver (Cochran, 1961, Living Amph. World: 57; Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 109).

Spotted Mud Frog (Stumpel-Rienks, 1992, Ergänzungsband Handbuch Rept. Amph. Eur., Trivialnamen der Herpetofauna Eur.: 53).

Common Parsley Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 96).

Hesperides' Parsley Frog (Pelodytes hespericus: Dufresnes, 2019, Amph. Eur., N. Afr., & Middle East: 50).

Distribution

Northern France in isolated populations to eastern, central, and southern Spain (south through Madrid, Toledo, and Ciudad Real to Jaén, Granada, and Almeria) and extreme northwestern coastal Italy; expected in Monaco.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: France, Italy, Spain

Likely/Controversially Present: Monaco

Comment

Literature prior to the revision of Díaz-Rodríguez, Gehara, Márquez, Vences, Gonçalves, Sequeira, Martínez-Solano, and Tejedo, 2017, Zootaxa, 4243: 1–41, should be used with caution inasmuch as several species have been named out of the range of Pelodytes punctatus as previously understood until 2017. Guyetant, 1997, in Gasc et al. (eds.), Atlas Amph. Rept. Eur.: 116–117, discussed relevant literature and distribution. Lanza, 1983, Guide Reconoscimento Spec. Animali, Anf. Rett.: 97-104, reported on the Italian populations. Barbadillo-Escrivá, 1987, Guia INCAFO Anf. Rept. Peninsula Iberica: 146-149, provided an account for the Iberian populations. Records for Belgium are in error (J. Speybroeck, personal commun.). Nöllert and Nöllert, 1992, Die Amph. Eur.: 282-285, provided an account and polygon map. Arnold, 2002, Rept. Amph. Eur., Ed. 2: 71-72, provided a brief account, figure, and map. Sánchez-Herraíz and Barbadillo-Escrivá, 1997, in Pleguezuelos (ed.), Dist. Biogeogr. Anf. Rep. Esp. Portugal: 143-145, provided a brief account, photograph, and detailed map for Iberia. Llorente, Montori, Santos, and Carretero, 1995, Atlas Amf. Rept. Catalunya Andorra: 64-65, provided an account and detailed range map for Catalunya. Arregui and García-París, 2006, Butll. Soc. Catalana Herpetol., 17: 56–58, 104, provided an altitudinal record in Cataluña, Spain, at 1780 m. See detailed account for Italy by Salvidio and Bologna, 2007, in Lanza et al. (eds.), Fauna d'Italia, 42 (Amph.): 363-372. Rivera, Escoriza, Maluquer-Margalef, Arribas, and Carranza, 2011, Amf. Rept. Catalunya: 72-74, provided a brief account for northeastern Spain and adjacent France. Van de Vliet, Beebee, and Diekmann, 2012, Conserv. Genetics, 13: 605-611, noted that an unnamed lineage occurs in southeastern Portugal and southwestern Spain, with Pelodytes punctatus being restricted to central, western, and northern Spain and north into France. Ambrogio and Mezzadri, 2014, Girini d'Italia–Tadpoles of Italy: 29–33, provided an account of the morphology and natural history of the tadpoles in Italy. Díaz-Rodríguez, Gonçalves, Sequeira, Sousa-Neves, Tejedo, Ferrand de Almeida, and Martínez-Solano, 2015, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 83: 224–241, reported on molecular phylogeography and reported four lineages which they regarded as candidate species. Their geographic ranges are: a) the western Iberian Peninsula, along the Atlantic coast and part of central Portugal; b) central and eastern Spain; and (c) northeastern Spain to northwestern France; and d) southeastern France and northwestern Italy. The authors confirmed that these four lineages taken together are the sister taxon of Pelodytes ibericus. See account by Díaz-Rodríguez, Gehara, Márquez, Vences, Gonçalves, Sequeira, Martínez-Solano, and Tejedo, 2017, Zootaxa, 4243: 21–23, who revised the species. Speybroeck, Beukema, Bok, and Van Der Voort, 2016, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Brit. Eur.: 146–147, provided a brief account and range map. See Dufresnes, 2019, Amph. Eur., N. Afr., & Middle East: 46, for brief s identifying morphology, range map, and biology as well as a photograph. Dufresnes, Pribille, Alard, Gonçalves, Amat, Crochet, Dubey, Perrin, Fumagalli, Vences, and Martínez-Solano, 2020, Heredity, 124: 423–438, discussed intergrade/hybrid zones of Pelodytes punctatus and Pelodytes hespericus and recommended that they be treated as conspecifics. 

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• For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
• For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
• For information on distribution, habitat, and conservation see the Map of Life
• For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist