Lithobates capito (LeConte, 1855)

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

Rana capito LeConte, 1855, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 7: 425. Holotype: Not stated; USNM 5903 according to Harper, 1935, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 48: 79. Type locality: "Georgia in the ditches of the rice-fields"; restricted to "Riceborough, Liberty County", Georgia, USA by Harper, 1935, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 48: 79. Synonymy by Cope, 1875, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 1: 32.

Rana areolata capito — Cope, 1875, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 1: 32.

Rana areolata aesopus Cope, 1886, Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., 23: 517. Holotype: USNM 4743, by original designation and according to Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 72. Type locality: "Micanopy, [Alachua County,] F[lorid]a.", USA. Synonymy with Rana capito by Boulenger, 1919, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 9, 3: 415.

Rana aesopus — Stejneger and Barbour, 1917, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept.: 36.

Rana capito capito — Wright and Wright, 1942, Handb. Frogs Toads U.S. Canada, Ed. 2: 173; Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 79.

Rana capito stertens Schwartz and Harrison, 1956, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 69: 135–144. Holotype: CHM 55.146.12, by original designation (specimen now residing in NCSM). Type locality: "6 mi. N Cainhoy, Berkeley County, South Carolina", USA. Status rejected by Neill, 1957, Herpetologica, 13: 47–52.

Rana areolata capito — Neill, 1957, Herpetologica, 13: 47–52.

Rana areolata aesopus — Neill, 1957, Herpetologica, 13: 47–52.

Rana capito — Case, 1978, Syst. Zool., 27: 299–311; Collins, 1991, Herpetol. Rev., 22: 43.

Rana (Rana) capito — Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 41, by implication.

Rana capito — Young and Crother, 2001, Copeia, 2001: 382.

Rana (Novirana, Sierrana, Pantherana, Nenirana) capito — 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) capito — Hillis and Wilcox, 2005, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 34: 305. (This being the interpretation by : 406, of the nomenclatural act of Hillis and Wilcox, 2005.)

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

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

Rana (Lithobates) capito — Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 406. 

Rana (Pantherana) capito — Yuan, Zhou, Chen, Poyarkov, Chen, Jang-Liaw, Chou, Matzke, Iizuka, Min, Kuzmin, Zhang, Cannatella, Hillis, and Che, 2016, Syst. Biol., 65: 835.

English Names

Florida Frog (Rana areolata capito: Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 25).

Gopher Frog (Rana aesopus: Dickerson, 1906, The Frog Book: 193; Wright, 1932, Life Hist. Frogs Okefinokee Swamp, 2: 14; Wright and Wright, 1933, Handb. Frogs Toads U.S. Canada: xi).

Florida Gopher Frog (Rana areolata aesopus: Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 79; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 177; Conant, 1975, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am., Ed. 2: 349; 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).

Florida Gopher Frog (Rana capito aesopus: Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 14).

Carolina Gopher Frog (Rana areolata capito: Conant, 1975, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am., Ed. 2: 349; 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; Lithobates capito: Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 8).

Carolina Gopher Frog (Rana capito capito: Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 14).

Gopher Frog (Rana capito: Carr, 1940, Univ. Florida Biol. Sci. Ser., 3: 63; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 14; Lithobates capito: Frost, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2008, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 37: 7; 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

Central and southern Alabama and southern Florida and northeast along the coastal plain to eastern North Carolina, USA; isolated records in central Tennessee and extreme southern Mississippi.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: United States of America, United States of America - Alabama, United States of America - Florida, United States of America - Georgia, United States of America - Mississippi, United States of America - North Carolina, United States of America - South Carolina, United States of America - Tennessee

Endemic: United States of America

Comment

Reviewed (as Rana areolata capito and Rana areolata aesopus) by Altig and Lohoefener, 1983, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 324: 1–4. Removed from the synonymy of Rana areolata by Case, 1978, Syst. Zool., 27: 299–311, and Young and Crother, 2001, Copeia, 2001: 382, where it had been placed by Neill, 1957, Herpetologica, 13: 47–52. See Rana sevosa. See statement of geographic range, habitat, and conservation status (as Rana capito) in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 631. Jensen and Richter, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 536–538, and Dodd, 2013, Frogs U.S. and Canada, 2 : 479–485, provided accounts that summarized relevant literature. Elliot, Gerhardt, and Davidson, 2009, Frogs and Toads of N. Am.: 210–213, provided an account, photos, and advertisement call. Richter, O'Neill, Nunziata, Rumments, Gustin, Young, and Crother, 2014, Copeia, 2014: 231–237, reported on mtDNA phylogeography which they found to be discordant with previously recognized subspecies. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 222–223, provided an account of larval morphology and biology. See account of biology and life history in southern Florida by Meshaka and Lane, 2015, Herpetol. Conserv. Biol., 10 (Monogr. 5): 72–75. Lannoo, Stiles, Saenz, and Hibbitts, 2018, Copeia, 2018: 575–579, reported on comparative call characteristics within the subgenus Nenirana. Guyer and Bailey, 2023, Frogs and Toads of Alabama: 111–115, provided a detailed account for Alabama, USA. Devitt, Enge, Farmer, Beerli, Richter, Hall, and Lance, 2023, Diversity, 15 (93) : 1–12, reported on mtDNA phylogeography which suggests that the Peninsular Florida population is distinct from the coastal plain population from western Florida and southern Alabama through Georgia and northern Florida through Georgia and South Carolina to North Carolina, USA. On this basis they suggested that conservation efforts should address the two segments separately. 

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