Lithobates blairi (Mecham, Littlejohn, Oldham, Brown, and Brown, 1973)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Ranidae > Genus: Lithobates > Species: Lithobates blairi

Rana blairi Mecham, Littlejohn, Oldham, Brown, and Brown, 1973, Occas. Pap. Mus. Texas Tech Univ., 18: 3. Holotype: UMMZ 131690, by original designation. Type locality: "1. 6 km W New Deal, Lubbock Co[unty]., Texas", USA.

Rana (Rana) blairi — Dubois, 1981, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Suppl., 15: 233, by implication; Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 41, by implication.

Rana (Pantherana) blairi — Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 332; Yuan, Zhou, Chen, Poyarkov, Chen, Jang-Liaw, Chou, Matzke, Iizuka, Min, Kuzmin, Zhang, Cannatella, Hillis, and Che, 2016, Syst. Biol., 65: 835.

Rana (Novirana, Sierrana, Pantherana, Scurrilirana) blairi — Hillis and Wilcox, 2005, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 34: 305. See Dubois, 2006, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 42: 317-330, Hillis, 2007, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 42: 331–338, and Dubois, 2007, Cladistics, 23: 390–402, for relevant discussion of nomenclature. Invalid name formulation under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (1999) as discussed by Dubois, 2007, Cladistics, 23: 395.

Rana (Novirana) blairi — Hillis and Wilcox, 2005, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 34: 305. Interpration by Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 405, of the nomenclatural act of Hillis and Wilcox, 2005. 

Lithobates blairi — Frost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, de Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green, and Wheeler, 2006, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 297: 369; Che, Pang, Zhao, Wu, Zhao, and Zhang, 2007, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 43: 1–13, by implication.

Lithobates (Lithobates) blairi — Dubois, 2006, C. R. Biol., Paris, 329: 829; Dubois, 2006, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 42: 325. 

Rana (Scurrilirana) blairi — Hillis, 2007, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 42: 335–336, by implication.

Rana (Lithobates) blairi — Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 405. 

English Names

Plains Leopard Frog (Conant, 1975, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am., Ed. 2: 346; 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: 237; Frost, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2008, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 37: 7; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 8; Frost, McDiarmid, Mendelson, and Green, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 17; Frost, Lemmon, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 14).

Distribution

Northwestern Indiana west across central and southern plains to southeastern Arkansas, southeastern South Dakota, eastern Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and central Texas to eastern, central, and southern New Mexico; isolated populations in southeastern Arizona and western Nebraska, USA.

Comment

In the subgenus Rana, Rana pipiens subgroup of the Rana pipiens complex as defined by Hillis, Frost, and Wright, 1983, Syst. Zool., 32: 132-143. In the equivalent Rana (Pantherana) pipiens group of Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 332. Reviewed by Brown, 1992, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 536: 1-6. Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 237-238, provided a brief account, figure, and map. Di Candia and Routman, 2007, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 45: 564-575, reported on hybridization and introgression with Lithobates pipiens. Engbrecht, Crawford, and Lannoo, 2009, Herpetol. Rev., 40: 446, provided a record for central Indiana and discussed the range. Korky, 1978, Copeia, 1978: 455-459, reported on larval difference from Lithobates pipiens in Nebraska. Dodd, 2013, Frogs U.S. and Canada, 2 : 472–479, provided an account that summarized relevant literature. Elliot, Gerhardt, and Davidson, 2009, Frogs and Toads of N. Am.: 224–225, provided an account, photos, and advertisement call. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 224–225, provided an account of larval morphology and biology. Painter, Stuart, Giermakowski, and Pierce, 2017, Western Wildlife, 4: 36, commented on the status and county range in New Mexico, USA. Wu and Burkett, 2021, Herpetol. Rev., 52: 77–78, provided a record from Las Cruces, Doña Ana County, New Mexico, USA. 

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