Amerana cascadae (Slater, 1939)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Ranidae > Genus: Amerana > Species: Amerana cascadae

Rana cascadae Slater, 1939, Herpetologica, 1: 145. Holotype: USNM 10868 (formerly PSM 2883), according to XXX. Type locality: "Elysian Fields, Rainier National Park, Washington. Elevation 5700 feet", USA.

Rana aurora cascadae — Stejneger and Barbour, 1943, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 93: 54.

Rana cascadii — Vincent, 1947, Nature Notes from Crater Lake, 13: 20. Incorrect subsequent spelling.

Rana (Rana) cascadae — Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 41, by implication; Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 393.

Rana (Aurorana) cascadae — Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 322.

Rana (Laurasiarana, Amerana) cascadae — Hillis and Wilcox, 2005, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 34: 311. See Dubois, 2006, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 42: 317–330, and Hillis, 2007, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 42: 331–338, for discussion. Invalid name formulation under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (1999) as discussed by Dubois, 2007, Cladistics, 23: 395.

Rana (Amerana) cascadae — Dubois, 2006, C. R. Biol., Paris, 329: 830; Yuan, Zhou, Chen, Poyarkov, Chen, Jang-Liaw, Chou, Matzke, Iizuka, Min, Kuzmin, Zhang, Cannatella, Hillis, and Che, 2016, Syst. Biol., 65: 835.

Aurorana cascadae — Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2010, Herpetol. Sinica, 12: 37. 

Amerana cascadae — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 424. 

Common Names

Cascade Frog (Vincent, 1947, Nature Notes from Crater Lake, 13: 20).

Cascade Range Frog (Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 85).

Cascades Frog (Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 176; Stebbins, 1966, Field Guide W. North Am. Rept. Amph.: 73; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 12; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 106; 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: 14; Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 230; Frost, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2008, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 37: 11; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 9; 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: 19).

Distribution

Montane meadows and lakes mostly above 1000 m in the Olympic Mountains (Washington, USA) and the Cascade Mountains (Washington, Oregon, and California, USA), with a few records as low as 73 m. Most populations in California now extinct.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: United States of America, United States of America - California, United States of America - Oregon, United States of America - Washington

Endemic: United States of America

Comment

In the Rana boylii group of North American authors. Green, 1985, Herpetologica, 41: 262–267, reported natural hybridization with Rana pretiosa. In the Rana aurora group of Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 42, in the equivalent Section Amerana, subgenus Aurorana of Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 322, although Aurorana was shown by Hillis and Wilcox, 2005, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 34: 305, to be paraphyletic with respect to Amerana. Reviewed by Altig and Dumas, 1971, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 105: 1–2. Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 230–231, provided a brief account, figure, and map (and who commented on the disappearance of this species from large areas of its former distribution). See statement of geographic range, habitat, and conservation status in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 632. Pauly, Ron, and Lerum, 2008, J. Herpetol., 42: 668–679, reported on molecular phylogeography. Pearl and Adams, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 538–540, and Dodd, 2013, Frogs U.S. and Canada, 2 : 707–715, provided accounts that summarized relevant literature. Elliot, Gerhardt, and Davidson, 2009, Frogs and Toads of N. Am.: 236–237, provided an account, photos, and advertisement call. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 243, provided an account of larval morphology and biology. Kissel, Palen, Adams, and Garwood, 2024  a,b,*,  a,  c, , Climate Change Ecol., 7 (100081): 1–10, reported on the effects of climate change on population size. 

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