Pelophylax nigromaculatus (Hallowell, 1861)

Common Names

Black-spotted Frog (Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 126; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 108; Kuzmin, 1999, Amph. Former Soviet Union: 392).

Black-spotted Pond Frog (Maeda and Matsui, 1990, Frogs Toads Japan, Ed. 2: 87; Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 162; Yang, Kim, Min, and Suh, 2001, Monogr. Korean Amph.: 66; Goris and Maeda, 2004, Guide Amph. Rept. Japan: 78).

Dark-spotted Pond Frog (Karsen, Lau, and Bogadek, 1986, Hong Kong Amph. Rept.: 24).

Dark-spotted Frog (Kuzmin and Maslova, 2003, Adv. Amph. Res. Former Soviet Union, 8: 322).

Common Pond Frog (Boring, Liu, and Chou, 1932, Handb. N. China, Amph. Rept.: 30).

Chinese Edible Frog (Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 126).

Three-striped Pond Frog (Karsen, Lau, and Bogadek, 1986, Hong Kong Amph. Rept.: 24).

Distribution

Lower Amur and Ussuri River valleys (Far East Russia) through northeastern to west-central China, and the Korean Peninsula; Japan (Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu), below 2200 m elevation. Isolated populations in eastern Xinjiang (introduced) and Yunnan, China and eastern Mongolia (see comment).

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: China, People's Republic of, Japan, Korea, Democratic People's Republic (North), Korea, Republic of (South), Mongolia, Russia

Comment

Reviewed by Kawamura, 1962, J. Sci. Hiroshima Univ., B—Zool., 20: 181–193; Pope, 1931, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 61: 515–520; Liu, 1950, Fieldiana, Zool. Mem., 2: 309–313; Liu and Hu, 1961, Tailless Amph. China: 169; and Kawamura and Nishioka, 1979, Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin, 55: 171–185. Kuramoto, 1977, J. Herpetol., 11: 249–254, reported on advertisement call in Japan. Distribution mapped by Zhao, Macey, and Papenfuss, 1988, Asiat. Herpetol. Res., 2: 1–3. See comment under Pelophylax tenggerensis. See Yang, Yu, and Park, 1988, Korean J. Zool., 31: 1–10, for discussion of relationship with Pelophylax plancyi. See account sby Kuzmin, 1999, Amph. Former Soviet Union: 392–399, and Kuzmin, 2013, Amph. Former Soviet Union, Ed. 2: 256, for the former USSR.. Yang, 1991, Amph. Fauna of Yunnan: 141–142, and Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 164–165, provided a brief account, map, and figure. Nishioka, Sumida, and Ohtani, 1992, Sci. Rep. Lab. Amph. Biol. Hiroshima Univ., 11: 1–70, reported on allozyme variation within Japan. Highton, 2000, in Bruce et al., Biol. Plethodontid Salamanders: 236, suggested on the basis of previously published allozyme evidence, that the Japanese population is a distinct species from that on the Chinese-Korean mainland. Maeda and Matsui, 1990, Frogs Toads Japan, Ed. 2: 84–87, provided an account for Japan. Fei and Ye, 2001, Color Handbook Amph. Sichuan: 176–177, provided a brief account and illustration. Huang, 1990, Fauna Zhejiang, Amph. Rept.: 67–69, provided an account for Zhejiang populations. Zhang and Wen, 2000, Amph. Guangxi: 82, provided an account (as Pelophylax nigromaculata) for Guangxi. Liu, Wang, and Zhou, 2002, Herpetol. Sinica, 9: 157–161, reported on minor 16S rRNA geographic variation across China and Japan. Yang, Kim, Min, and Suh, 2001, Monogr. Korean Amph.: 66–67, provided a brief account, figure, and map for South Korea. Fan, Guo, and Liu, 1998, Amph. Rept. Shanxi Prov.: 63–66, provided an account for Shanxi. Goris and Maeda, 2004, Guide Amph. Rept. Japan: 78–80, provided an account, map, and photograph. Kuzmin and Maslova, 2003, Adv. Amph. Res. Former Soviet Union, 8: 322–340, provided an extensive account and regarded Rana nigromaculata as most closely related to Rana lessonae. In the Pelophylax nigromaculatus group of Fei, Ye, Huang, Jiang, and Xie, 2005, in Fei et al. (eds.), Illust. Key Chinese Amph.: 111. Zhang, Yan, Zhang, and Zhou, 2008, BMC Evol. Biol., 8(21): 1–16, reported on post-Pleistocene biogeography. Yang, 2008, in Yang and Rao (ed.), Amph. Rept. Yunnan: 69–70, provided a brief account (as Rana nigromaculata) for Yunnan. See statement of geographic range, habitat, and conservation status (as Rana nigromaculata) in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 633. Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2009, Fauna Sinica, Amph. 3: 1061–1071, provided an account, figures, and map for China and included it in their Pelophylax nigromaculatus group. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2010, Colored Atlas of Chinese Amph.: 286–287, provided a brief account including photographs of specimens and habitat. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2012, Colored Atlas Chinese Amph. Distr.: 324–325, provided an account, photographs, and a range map. Terbish, Munkhbayar, and Munkhbaatar, 2013, Guide Amph. Rept. Mongolia: 24, suggested that the species has not recently been seen in Mongolia. Via DNA analysis the Xinjiang, China, population was identified by Wang, Liu, Zhu, Gao, and Li, 2016, Asian Herpetol. Res., 7: 69–74, to be introduced from the Beijing and Chongqing regions of China. Adnagulov, 2016, Curr. Stud. Herpetol., Saratov, 16: 87–106, provided a dot map and discussion for Evreiskaya Autonomous Oblast, Far East Russia. Itoh, 2017, Curr. Herpetol., Kyoto, 36: 135–141, provided information on female vocalizations. Wang, Fan, Liu, Li, Gao, Zhu, and Li, 2017, Curr. Zool., Chengdu, 63: 615–621, reported on genetic evidence for the source of introduced populations in Xizang, China. Yao and Gong, 2012, Amph. Rept. Gansu: 56–57, provided a brief account and photographs. Li, Lian, and Lu, 2010, Res. Tadpoles Liaoning: 35–38, described and pictured the larva. Shen, 2014, Fauna Hunan, Amph.: 217–220, provided a detailed account for Hunan, China. Li, 2011, Amph. Rept. Guangdong: 42, provided a brief account for Guangdong, China, and photograph. Dot map and discussion of status for North Korea provided by Song, 2016, J. Natl. Park Res., Rep. Korea, 7: 211–217.  Zhang, 2017, Amph. Rept. Fanjing Mts.: 113–118, provided taxonomic and natural history information for the Fanjing Mountains population in northeastern Guizhou, China. Borzée, Litvinchuk, Ri, Andersen, Nam, Jon, Man, Choe, Kwon, Othman, Messenger, Bae, Shin, Kim, Maslova, Luedtke, Hobin, Moores, Seliger, Glenk, and Jang, 2021, Animals, 11 (2057): 1–37, provided locality records, a distribution map as well as modeled distribution, life history comments, and conservation status for P.D.R. Korea. Andersen, Chuang, Choe, Kim, Kwon, Jang, and Borzée, 2022, Zool. Stud., Taipei, 61(25): 1–10, reported on the elevational range (0–1098 m) in Rep. Korea. Figueroa, Low, and Lim, 2023, Zootaxa, 5287: 244, noted that his species has no established populations in Singapore. Borzée, 2024, Continental NE Asian Amph.: 109–114, provided a detailed account (distribution including a polygon map, habitat, ecology, conservation, photos of larvae and adults, identification tools) for northeastern Asia.           

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• To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
• For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
• For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
• For information on distribution, habitat, and conservation see the Map of Life
• For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist
• For additional information specific to China see Amphibia China
• For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.