Amerana pretiosa (Baird and Girard, 1853)

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

Rana pretiosa Baird and Girard, 1853, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 6: 378. Syntypes: Not stated; including USNM 11409 (5 specimens) according to Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 76. USNM 11409 designated lectotype by Green, Kaiser, Sharbel, Kearsley, and McAllister, 1997, Copeia, 1997: 5, the other syntypes renumbered as 498959–62. Type locality: "Oregon . . . on Puget Sound", Washington, USA.

Rana temporaria pretiosa — Cope, 1889, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 34: 432.

Rana pretiosa pretiosa — Thompson, 1913, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 26: 53.

Rana pretiosa — Boulenger, 1919, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 9, 3: 414.

Rana (Rana) pretiosa — Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 41, by implication; Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 397. 

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

Rana (Laurasiarana, Amerana) pretiosa — Hillis and Wilcox, 2005, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 34: 311, by implication; 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) pretiosa — 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 pretiosa — Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2010, Herpetol. Sinica, 12: 37. 

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

Common Names

Pacific Frog (Rana pretiosa: Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 25).

Salmon Frog (Rana pretiosa: Cooper, 1859, Nat. Hist. Washington Terr.: 304; Cooper, 1860, Rep. Upon Explor Surv. Route Railroad Mississippi–Pacific Ocean, 12 (Book 2, Pt. 3, No. 4): 304).

Western Frog (Rana pretiosa: Dickerson, 1906, The Frog Book: 218).

Western Spotted Frog (Rana pretiosa: Storer, 1925, Univ. California Publ. Zool., 27: 43; Slevin, 1928, Occas. Pap. California Acad. Sci., 16: 133; Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 85).

Red-bellied Frog (Rana pretiosa: Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 85).

Spotted Frog (Rana pretiosa: Stebbins, 1951, Amph. W. North Am.: 367; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 177; Stebbins, 1966, Field Guide W. North Am. Rept. Amph.: 72; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 13; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 109),

Oregon Spotted Frog (Rana pretiosa: 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: 15; Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 228; 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: 21; Frost, Lemmon, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 19).

Western Spotted Frog (Rana pretiosa pretiosa [no longer recognized]: Wright and Wright, 1933, Handb. Frogs Toads U.S. Canada: xi; Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 85; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 177).

Distribution

Northwestern Washington and adjacent Britsh Columbia (Canada), and the Cascade Mountains of Oregon and adjacent California, USA. Now extinct in most of western Washington and western Oregon.

Geographic Occurrence

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

Comment

 Green, 1985, Herpetologica, 41: 262–267, reported natural hybridization with Rana cascadae. In the Rana boylii group of North American authors. 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 Turner and Dumas, 1972, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 119: 1–2 (before the recognition of Rana luteiventris). See comment under Rana luteiventris. Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 228, provided a brief account, figure, and map (and who commented on the disappearance of this species from large areas of its former distribution). Funk, Pearl, Draheim, Adams, Mullins, and Haig, 2008, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 49: 198–210, reported on molecular phylogeographics. See photograph, map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 510. Pearl and Hayes, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 577–580, provided a detailed account that summarized the literature on biology, range, and conservation.  Dodd, 2013, Frogs U.S. and Canada, 2 : 739–747, provided an account that summarized relevant literature and mapped the diminished range. Elliot, Gerhardt, and Davidson, 2009, Frogs and Toads of N. Am.: 244–247, provided an account, photos, and advertisement call. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 245–246, provided an account of larval morphology and biology.  

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.