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.

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. 

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