Lithobates forreri (Boulenger, 1883)

Common Names

Forrer's Leopard Frog (Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 16).

Dry Forest Leopard Frog (Salazar-Saavedra, 2025, Rev. Nicaraguense Biodiversidad, 114: 23).

Forrer's Grass Frog (Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 27; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 107).

Mayo Leopard Frog (Rana adleri [no longer recognize]: Pérez-Ramos, 2023, Rev. Zool., Mexico, 35: 4). 

Náayari Leopard Frog (Rana cora [no longer recognized]:  Pérez-Ramos and Luja-Molina, 2022, Rev. Zool., Mexico, 34: 23). 

Chamela Leopard Frog (Rana floresi [no longer recognized]: Pérez-Ramos and Luja-Molina, 2022, Rev. Zool., Mexico, 34: 25). 

Acapulco Leopard Frog (Rana hillisi [no longer recognized]: Pérez-Ramos, 2023, Rev. Zool., Mexico, 35: 7). 

Little Corn Island Frog (Rana miadis [no longer recognized]: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 108; Hedges, Powell, Henderson, Hanson, and Murphy, 2019, Caribb. Herpetol., 67: 15)

Rana Leopardo Común (Spanish: Salazar-Saavedra, 2025, Rev. Nicaraguense Biodiversidad, 114: 23).

Common Leopard Frog (Salazar-Saavedra, 2025, Rev. Nicaraguense Biodiversidad, 114: 23).

Dry Forest Leopard Frog (Salazar-Saavedra, 2025, Rev. Nicaraguense Biodiversidad, 114: 23).

Distribution

Pacific coastal plain of Mexico from central Sonora, southwestern Chihuahua, western Durango, Sinaloa, Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, Michoacán, Guerrero,  Oaxaca, and Chiapas, Mexico, and south on the Pacific coast in southern Guatemala, El Salvador, western Nicaragua, and northwestern Costa Rica; likely into extreme western Panama and southern Honduras; Little Corn Island off the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua

Likely/Controversially Present: Honduras, Panama

Endemic: Mexico

Comment

 Zaldívar-Riverón, León-Regagnon, and Nieto-Montes de Oca, 2004, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 30: 38–49, implied that nominal Lithobates/Rana forreri was a composite of several species. Pérez-Ramos and Luja-Molina, 2022, Rev. Zool., Mexico, 34: 19–41 and Pérez-Ramos, 2023, Rev. Zool., Mexico, 35: 1–18, followed up with this by the addition of several  species, but this arrangement was rejected by Chambers, Lara-Tufiño, Campillo-García, Cisneros-Bernal, Dudek, León-Regagnon, Townsend, Flores-Villela, and Hillis, 2025, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 122 (19): 1–11, who provided a detailed revision of the group (as Rana). Elevated from status as a subspecies of Rana berlandieri by Frost, 1982, Syst. Zool., 31: 57–67. Subgenus Rana, Rana berlandieri subgroup of the Rana pipiens group as defined by Hillis, Frost, and Wright, 1983, Syst. Zool., 32: 132–143. In equivalent Rana (Pantherana) berlandieri group of Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 331. Rana miadis was removed from the synonymy of Rana pipiens (sensu lato) by Hillis, Frost, and Wright, 1983, Syst. Zool., 32: 132–143, where it had been placed by Zweifel, 1967, Herpetologica, 23: 54–56. Lips and Savage, 1996, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 109: 17–26, included this species (as Rana forreri) in a key to the tadpoles found in Costa Rica. See accounts (as ) by Savage, 2002, Amph. Rept. Costa Rica: 399–400, and McCranie and Wilson, 2002, Amph. Honduras: 482–485, who noted a hybrid zone with "Rana berlandieri" (now Rana brownorum). Grismer, 2002, Amph. Rept. Baja California: 81–82, provided an account for the introduced Baja California, Mexico, population. Zaldívar-Riverón, León-Regagnon, and Nieto-Montes de Oca, 2004, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 30: 38–49, provided a molecular phylogenetic analysis of this species and near relatives, including several mtDNA matrilines. Köhler, Veselý, and Greenbaum, 2005 "2006", Amph. Rept. El Salvador: 66–68, provided an account (as Rana forreri, and for El Salvador) and a color photograph. McCranie, 2007, Herpetol. Rev., 38: 38, summarized the departmental distribution in Honduras. Lemos-Espinal and Smith, 2007, Anf. Rept. Chihuahua Mexico: 58–59, provided an account for Chihuahua, Mexico, including photograph and dot map. See map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status (as Rana miadis) in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 507. Köhler, 2011, Amph. Cent. Am.: 291–295, provided a brief summary of natural history and identification key for the species of Lithobates in Central America and provided a range map and photograph for this species and current synonyms. Valdéz-Villavicencio, Peralta-García, and Hollingsworth, 2015, Herpetol. Rev., 46: 379, provided a record in the Río Sonora drainage at the municipality of Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. Rendón Suárez, Mercado-Silva, Palomera García, and Iñiguez Dávalos, 2016, Southwest. Nat., 61: 241–273 provided records from the Marabasco Basin of the Jalisco–Colima border region. Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal, 2016, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Sonora: 187–189, provided a detailed account (as Lithobates forreri) of natural history, morphology, distribution, and conservation status in Sonora, Mexico. See comments by McCranie, Sunyer, and Martínez-Fonseca, 2019, Rev. Nicaraguense Biodiversidad, 52: 11, regarding systematics in Honduras. Ahumada-Carrillo, Grünwald, López Cuellar, and Jones, 2020, Herpetol. Rev., 51: 277–278, reported the species from the municipality of Villa de Guerrero, northern Jalisco, Mexico. Martínez-Fonseca, Holmes, Sunyer, Westeen, Grundler, Cerda, Fernández-Mena, Loza-Molina, Monagan, Nondorf, Pandelis, and Rabosky, 2024, Check List, 20: 74, provided and discussed a record under this name from Asososca Lake–Momotombo, Department of León, western Nicaragua. Loc-Barragán, Smith, Woolrich-Piña, and Lemos-Espinal, 2024, Herpetozoa, Wien, 37: 30, reported on the distributional and conservation status of nominal Lithobates cora in the state of Nayarit, Mexico. Gatica-Colima, Porras, Mata-Silva, De Santis, Rocha, and Johnson, 2024, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 18: 108–186, discussed the range and conservation status of nominal Lithobates cora in Chihuahua, Mexico.  Castro-Bastidas, 2024, Bull. Chicago Herpetol. Soc., 59: 113, considered the taxonomic status of this species requiring verification using nuDNA.

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