Pelophylax kurtmuelleri (Gayda, 1940)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Ranidae > Genus: Pelophylax > Species: Pelophylax kurtmuelleri

Rana ridibunda kurt-mülleri Gayda, 1940 "1939", Atti Soc. Ital. Sci. Nat. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Milano, 79: 267. Holotype: ZMB, according to the original publication. Type locality: "Arsen presso Petrelli" = Erzen river near Petrela, Albania.

Rana balcanica Schneider and Sinsch, 1992, Z. Zool. Syst. Evolutionsforsch., 30: 297–315. Type(s): Not designated; holotype subsequently noted as ZFMK 52825 by Schneider, Sinsch, and Sofianidou, 1993, Z. Zool. Syst. Evolutionsforsch., 31: 47–63; Dubois and Ohler, 1996 "1994", Zool. Polon., 39: 179, designated as lectotype "the adult male which produced the mating call represented in oscillogram of fig. 2c of Schnieder and Sinsch (1992)." This second lectotype designation is apparently unnecessary and invalid. Type locality: "includes Greece except for Thrace . . . has also been found at Lake Scutari in Yugoslavia [on Montenegro–Albanian border]"; designated as "ca. 2 km west of Gefyra (near Thessaloniki, Macedonia) in a pond directly on the eastern bank of the Axios River", Greece, by Schneider, Sinsch, and Sofianidou, 1993, Z. Zool. Syst. Evolutionsforsch., 31: 60. Synonymy by Dubois and Ohler, 1996 "1994", Zool. Polon., 39: 175. The argument by Dubois and Ohler, 1996 "1994", Zool. Polon., 39: 179–180, that Rana balcanica Schneider and Sinsch, 1992, and Rana balcanica Schneider, Sinsch, and Sofianidou, 1993, represent different nominal taxa is here rejected.

Rana (Pelophylax) kurtmuelleri — Dubois and Ohler, 1996 "1994", Zool. Polon., 39: 179.

Hylarana kurtmuelleri — Chen, Murphy, Lathrop, Ngo, Orlov, Ho, and Somorjai, 2005, Herpetol. J., 15: 237, by implication.

Pelophylax kurtmuelleri — 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.

Pelophylax ridibundus kurtmuelleri — Sindaco and Razzetti, 2021, Atti Soc. Ital. Sci. Nat. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Milano, 8: 40, but citing Speybroeck, Beukema, and Crochet, 2010, Zootaxa, 2492, for the arrangement. 

English Names

Balkan Frog (Sofianidou, 1997, in Gasc et al. (eds.), Atlas Amph. Rept. Eur.: 130).

Greek Marsh Frog (Arnold, 2002, Rept. Amph. Eur., Ed. 2: 96).

Distribution

Southern Greece north into Albania and Montenegro; isolated and presumed introduced record for Slovenia; introduced into southwestern Poland, Piemonte, Switzerland, and Liguria, Calabria, and Lombardia, Italy; expected in Kosovo and North Macedonia.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro

Likely/Controversially Present: Kosovo, North Macedonia

Introduced: Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland

Comment

Related and most similar to Pelophylax ridibundus (as Rana) according to the original publication. In the Section Pelophylax, subgenus Pelophylax; by implication. Sinsch and Eblenkamp, 1994, Z. Zool. Syst. Evolutionsforsch., 32: 35–43, discussed relationships (of Rana balcanica) with Rana ridibunda and Rana levantina. A more extensive description of Rana balcanica appeared (Schneider, Sinsch, and Sofianidou, 1993, Z. Zool. Syst. Evolutionsforsch., 31: 47–63) after the inadvertent earlier naming of this species. See Schneider and Haxhiu, 1994, Zool. Jahrb., Jena, Abt. Syst., 121: 248–262, for discussion of Rana balcanica (and Rana epeirotica) in Albania. See Sofianidou, Schneider, and Sinsch, 1994, Alytes, 12: 93–108, for comparative electrophoretic study. See comment under Rana epeirotica. Sofianidou, 1996, Israel J. Zool., 42: 149–157, reported on an electrophoretic study of a hybrid zone between Pelophylax epeiroticus (as Rana epeirotica) and Pelophylax kurtmuelleri (as Rana balcanica). Sofianidou, 1997, in Gasc et al. (eds.), Atlas Amph. Rept. Eur.: 130–131, discussed (as Rana balcanica) range and relevant literature. Arnold, 2002, Rept. Amph. Eur., Ed. 2: 96, provided a brief account, figure, and map. Lever, 2003, Naturalized Rept. Amph. World: 202–203, reported the species as introduced in Denmark (as Rana balcanica). Gavrilovic, Cvetkovic, Džukić, and Petkovski, 1999, in Legakis (ed.), Contr. Zoogeogr. Ecol. E. Mediterr. Region, 1: 205–210, reported on differences from Pelophylax ridibundus (as Rana balcanica). Lymberakis, Poulakakis, Manthalou, Tsigenopoulos, Magoulas, and Mylonas, 2007, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 44: 115–125, questioned on the basis of molecular evidence the distinctiveness of Pelophylax kurtmuelleri from Pelophylax ridibundus. Crochet and Dubois, 2004, In Gasc et al. (eds)., Atlas Amph. Rept. Europe, Ed. 2: 499, discussed the ambiguity of data separating this taxon from Pelophylax ridibundus. Bressi, 2007, Atti Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Trieste, 53: 3–10, reported this species in Slovenia. See brief account for Greece by Valakos, Pafilis, Sotiropoulos, Lymberakis, Maragou, and Foufopoulos, 2008, Amph. Rept. Greece: 114–115. Sacchi, Razzetti, and Capula, 2007, in Lanza et al. (eds.), Fauna d'Italia, 42 (Amph.): 392–396, and Razzetti, Pellitteri-Rosa, Sacchi, Tiso, and Bernini, 2010, Atti VIII Congr. Naz. Soc. Herpetol. Ital. 2010: 341–347, discussed the introduced Italian population. Bressi, 2007, Atti Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Trieste, 53: 3–10, reported the species in Slovenia. Razzetti, Pellitteri-Rosa, Sacchi, Tiso, and Bernini, 2010, Atti VIII Congr. Naz. Soc. Herpetol. Ital. 2010: 341–347, discussed the expansion of the introduced range from Liguria into Piemonte and Lombardia, Italy. Dubey, Leuenberger, and Perrin, 2014, Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 112: 442–449, noted an introduced population in Switzerland. Kolenda, Pietras-Lebioda, Hofman, Ogielska, and Pabijan, 2017, Amphibia-Reptilia, 38: 187–196, present genetic evidence for the possible introduction into southwestern Poland from the border areas of Greece, Albania, and North Macedonia. Szabolcs, Mizsei, Jablonski, Vági, Mester, Végvári, and Lengyel, 2017, Amphibia-Reptilia, 38: 435–448, provided a dot map and discussion of range in Albania. Vucić, Jelić, Klobučar, Prkljačić, and Jelić, 2018, Salamandra, 54: 147–157, reported on hybridization levels with Pelophylax shqipericus in Lake Skadar, Montenegro. Bellati, Bassu, Nulchis, and Corti, 2019, BioInvasions Rec., 8: 8–25, reported an introduced population on Sardinia, Italy. Bisconti, Martino, Chiocchio, Siclari, and Canestrelli, 2019, BioInvasions Rec., 8: 26–33, reported an introduced population in Aspromonte National Park, Calabria, southern Italy. See Dufresnes, 2019, Amph. Eur., N. Afr., & Middle East: 106, for brief summary of identifying morphology and biology, a range map, as well as a photograph. Papežík, Kubala, Jablonski, Doležálková-Kaštánková, Choleva, Benovics, and Mikulíček, 2021, Salamandra, 57: 105–123, discussed the difficulty of identifying this species in the Balkans with respect to Pelophylax shqipericus, Pelophylax epeiroticus, and Pelophylax ridibundus, and within that context molecular markers provided the best characters for separating the species. Corti, Biaggini, Nulchis, Cogoni, Cossu, Frau, Mulargia, Lunghi, and Bassu, 2022, Acta Herpetol., Firenze, 17: 125–133, reported on the range in Sardinia. 

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