Pelophylax ridibundus (Pallas, 1771)

English Names

Laughing Frog (Shaw, 1802, Gen. Zool., 3(1): 114; Hellmich, 1962, Rept. Amph. Eur.: 74; Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 127).

German River Frog (Boulenger, 1885, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1885: 666).

Marsh Frog (Hellmich, 1962, Rept. Amph. Eur.: 74; Arnold and Burton, 1978, Field Guide Rept. Amph. Brit. Eur.: 85; Stumpel-Rienks, 1992, Ergänzungsband Handbuch Rept. Amph. Eur., Trivialnamen der Herpetofauna Eur.: 59; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 109; Kuzmin, 1999, Amph. Former Soviet Union: 362; Arnold, 2002, Rept. Amph. Eur., Ed. 2: 89).

Eurasian Marsh Frog (Arakelyan, Danielyan, Corti, Sindaco, and Leviton, 2011, Herpetofauna of Armenia: 44).

Lake Frog (Arnold and Burton, 1978, Field Guide Rept. Amph. Brit. Eur.: 85; Stumpel-Rienks, 1992, Ergänzungsband Handbuch Rept. Amph. Eur., Trivialnamen der Herpetofauna Eur.: 59; Günther, 1997, in Gasc et al. (eds.), Atlas Amph. Rept. Eur.: 154).

Central Asian Pond Frog (Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 164).

Green Frog (Rana esculenta [a hybrid with Rana lessonae]: Shaw, 1802, Gen. Zool., 3(1): 103; Gray, 1831, in Cuvier, Animal Kingdom (Griffith), 9—Appendix: 100; Cuvier, 1831, Animal Kingdom (M'Murtrie), 2: 78; Wood, 1863, Illust. Nat. Hist., 3: 159; Stumpel-Rienks, 1992, Ergänzungsband Handbuch Rept. Amph. Eur., Trivialnamen der Herpetofauna Eur.: 56).

Common Water-frog (Rana esculenta [a hybrid with Rana lessonae]: Gadow, 1901, Amphibia and Reptiles: 263).

Edible Frog (Rana esculenta [a hybrid with Rana lessonae]: Lacépède, 1802, Nat. Hist. Ovip. Quadruped. (Kerr transl.): 197; Wood, 1863, Illust. Nat. Hist., 3: 159; Boulenger, 1891, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1891: 374; Flower, 1933, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1933: 844; Arnold and Burton, 1978, Field Guide Rept. Amph. Brit. Eur.: 87; Stumpel-Rienks, 1992, Ergänzungsband Handbuch Rept. Amph. Eur., Trivialnamen der Herpetofauna Eur.: 55; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 107; Kuzmin, 1999, Amph. Former Soviet Union: 384; Arnold, 2002, Rept. Amph. Eur., Ed. 2: 92).

Graf's Frog ("Rana grafi" [hybridogenetic hemiclone]: original publication).

Boulenger's Green Frog (Rana fortis: Dubois and Ohler, 1996 "1994", Zool. Polon., 39: 170).

Graf's Hybrid Frog ("Rana grafi" [hybridogenetic hemiclone]: Arnold, 2002, Rept. Amph. Eur., Ed. 2: 93); Dufresnes, 2019, Amph. Eur., N. Afr., & Middle East: 115 (Pelophylax perezi x Pelophylax ridibundus)  

Eurasian Marsh Frog (Dufresnes, 2019, Amph. Eur., N. Afr., & Middle East: 105). 

Giant Marsh Frog (Pelophylax gigas [status uncertain]: Safaei-Mahroo and Ghaffari, 2020, Compl. Guide Amph. Iran: 31).

Distribution

Central Europe east of northeastern France, north to southern shore of Baltic Sea (and extreme southern Finland), south to extreme northeastern Spain, northern Italy and the Balkans including eastern Greece; east to ca. 81° E in Asiatic Russia and Uzbekistan, south to northern and eastern Iran (see comment) to the Turkmenistan border and Afghanistan border. Isolated populations in the high Asir and Ha'il regions of of western and north-central Saudi Arabia, and oases of eastern Saudi Arabia; introduced into England and Italy; introduced hybrid population (with Pelophylax bedriagae) in the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia.   

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Afghanistan, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan

Introduced: Belgium, China, People's Republic of, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom

Comment

Unnamed taxa similar to Pelophylax ridibundus revealed in peninsular Italy by Uzzell and Hotz, 1979, Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin, 55: 13–27; in Greece and Serbia and Montenegro by Hotz and Uzzell, 1982, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 134: 50–79, and by Tunner and Heppich, 1982, Z. Zool. Syst. Evolutionsforsch., 20: 209–223. Status of North African frogs is uncertain. See Pelophylax saharicus. See Ma, 1979, Nat. Hist., Beijing, 1979: 37, for Chinese record. Records for the southwestern Balkans, Levant, and Egypt refer to Pelophylax epeiroticus, Pelophylax balcanicus, Pelophylax bedriagae, and Pelophylax levantinus. See account by Ye, Fei, and Hu, 1993, Rare and Economic Amph. China: 231. Nöllert and Nöllert, 1992, Die Amph. Eur.: 341–346, provided an account and polygon map. See also Mezhzherin, 1997, Zool. Zh., 76: 933–939, for discussion of morphological and biochemical variation in population in Kazakhstan. See Balletto, Cherchi, and Gasperetti, 1985, Fauna Saudi Arabia, 7: 368, for account of Arabian populations. Briggs and Ault, 1985, Herpetol. Rev., 16: 72–75, detailed the range in southwestern Saudi Arabia. See accounts by Kuzmin, 1999, Amph. Former Soviet Union: 362–377, Kuzmin, 2013, Amph. Former Soviet Union, Ed. 2: 231–244, (these two for the former USSR) and Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 164–165. Başoğlu and Özeti, 1973, Türkiye Amphibileri: 97–99, provided an account for the Turkish populations. See comment under Pelophylax bedriagae. Günther, 1997, in Gasc et al. (eds.), Atlas Amph. Rept. Eur.: 154–155, discussed relevant biology and range. Arnold, 2002, Rept. Amph. Eur., Ed. 2: 89–90, provided a brief account, figure, and map, as did Günther in Engelmann, Fritzsche, Günther, and Obst, 1993, Lurche Kriechtiere Eur.: 181–182. Özeti and Yilmaz, 1994, Türkiye Amfibileri: 145–148, provided an account for Turkish populations (Rana ridibunda ridibunda and Rana ridibunda caralitana [now Pelophylax caralitanus]). Wycherley, Doran, and Beebee, 2002, Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 77: 355–365, reported on geographic varation in male advertisement call characteristics. Sartaeva, 2000, Selevinia, 2000: 38–42, provided a brief report on morphometric variation in Kazakhstan. Kyriakopoulou-Sklavounou, Xeros, Charilaou, and Tsiora, 2003, Ann. Soc. R. Zool. Belg., 133: 191–193, on the basis of allele frequencis suggested that Rana ridibunda from Crete is more closely related to Rana balcanica than to Greek populations of Rana ridibunda, suggesting that the latter is a composite. Pikulik, 1996, Zemnavodnyia Pauzuny: 85–88, provided an account for the Belarus population. Lever, 2003, Naturalized Rept. Amph. World: 222–224, discussed the introductions in England, Belgium, France, Italy, Russia, and Kyrghyzstan. Casola, Marracci, Bucci, Ragghianti, Mancino, Hotz, Uzzell, and Guex, 2004, J. Zool. Syst. Evol. Res., 42: 234–244, provided a molecular tree of western Palearctic water frogs in the topology Rana saharica (Rana cretensis (Rana perezi (Rana shqiperica (Rana epeirotica ("Rana lessonae" + Rana ridibunda))))). Kuzmin and Maslova, 2003, Adv. Amph. Res. Former Soviet Union, 8: 340–342, provided an account for Far East Russia. Because each individual of "Pelophylax esculentus" is a hybrid "Pelophylax esculentus" must be regarded as a kind of frog, not a species, Subgenus Rana, a pattern-class in the Pelophylax ridibundus-Pelophylax lessonae hybridogenetic complex. "Pelophylax esculentus" had a hybrid origin from Pelophylax lessonae and Pelophylax ridibundus, according to Berger, 1968, Acta Zool. Cracov., 13: 301–324. See Dubois, 1982, Alytes, 1: 42–49, for an outline of the complex. See also Berger, 1983, Experientia, 39: 127–130, and Spolsky and Uzzell, 1986, Mol. Biol. Evol., 3: 44–56. Many older records apply to Rana lessonae. Unidentified members of this complex have been introduced on Sardinia, according to Auclair, Auclair, and Brugiere, 1983, Alytes, 2: 53–55. See account by Kuzmin, 1999, Amph. Former Soviet Union: 3384–389. Günther, 1997, in Gasc et al. (eds.), Atlas Amph. Rept. Eur.: 138–139, discussed range and relevant literature. Rana maritima was removed from the synonymy of Rana esculenta, by Dubois and Ohler, 1996 "1994", Zool. Polon., 39: 155, where it had been placed by Bonaparte, 1840, Mem. Accad. Sci. Torino, Ser. 2, 2: 443, Duméril and Bibron, 1841, Erp. Gen., 8: 345; Günther, 1859 "1858", Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus.: 12; Schreiber, 1875, Herpetol. Eur.: 119; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 38, on the assumption that this was the correct name for the taxon subsequently named Rana grafi. Dubois, 1998, Amphibia-Reptilia, 19: 21, suggested that the name Rana maritima might apply to Rana bergeri or Rana hispanica. See comment under Rana grafi. Arnold, 2002, Rept. Amph. Eur., Ed. 2: 92, provided a brief account, figure, and map. Wycherley, Doran, and Beebee, 2002, Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 77: 355–365, reported on geographic varation in male advertisement call characteristics. Borkin, Korshunov, Lada, Litvinchuk, Rosanov, Shabanov, and Zinenko, 2004, Russ. J. Herpetol., 11: 194–213, reported on hybridization with Pelophylax lessonae, and the hybridogen Pelophylax "esculenta" in eastern Ukraine. Brief account for Europe provided by Günther in Engelmann, Fritzsche, Günther, and Obst, 1993, Lurche Kriechtiere Eur.: 173–175. Gislén and Kauri, 1959, Acta Vert., Stockholm, 1: 295–300, reported on Swedish populations.Pelophylax kl. grafi is a hybridogenetic hemilineage associated with Rana perezi and Rana ridibunda is "Rana grafi". Because each individual frog is a hybrid "Pelophylax grafi" cannot be considered a lineage of frogs, but a kind of frog. Discovered by Graf, Karch, and Moreillon, 1977, Experientia, 33: 1582–1584, and Graf and Polls-Pelaz, 1989, in Dawley and Bogart (eds.), Evol. Ecol. Unisexual Vert.: 289–302, "Rana grafi" was formerly referred to in the literature as Graf's Frog (e. g., Dubois, 1992, XXX),and briefly the name Rana maritima was used for this taxon (Dubois and Ohler, 1996 "1994", Zool. Polon., 39: 155). Subsequently, Dubois and Ohler, 1996 "1994", Zool. Polon., 39: 206, on the basis of additional evidence suggested that application of the name Rana maritima remained unsettled, and the name Rana grafi was coined for Graf's frog. Arnold, 2002, Rept. Amph. Eur., Ed. 2: 93–94, provided a brief account, figure, and map as did Günther IN Engelmann, Fritzsche, Günther, and Obst, 1993, Lurche Kriechtiere Eur.: 179–181 (as "Grafscher Hybridfrosch"). The hybridogen now called Pelophylax kl. hispanicus was noted by Uzzell and Hotz, 1979, Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin, 55: 15, as a distinct hybridogenetic population. Hispanicus was removed from the synonymy of Rana perezi by Dubois and Ohler, 1996 "1994", Zool. Polon., 39: 157, where it had been placed by XXX. While noting that it may still be found to be a junior synonym of Rana lessonae, Dubois and Ohler attached the name Rana hispanica to the hybridogenetic population formerly known as the "southern hybrid" by Uzzell and Hotz, 1979, Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin, 55: 15. Records for this species from Corsica are based on specimens of Rana bergeri (J. Speybroeck, personal commun.). Baloutch and Kami, 1995, Amph. Iran: 152–157, provided an account for Iran. Ogielska, Kierzkowski, and Rybacki, 2005, Canad. J. Zool., 82: 1894–1901, discussed genome composition in the Pelophylax lessonae-Pelophylax ridibundus-Pelophylax "esculentus" hybridogenetic complex (as Rana). See comment under Pelophylax kurtmuelleri. Valakos, Pafilis, Sotiropoulos, Lymberakis, Maragou, and Foufopoulos, 2008, Amph. Rept. Greece: 118–119, discussed the species in Greece. Holsbeek, Mergeay, Hotz, Plötner, Volckaert, and De Meester, 2008, Mol. Ecol., 17: 5023-5035, noted introduced populations in Belgium. See account of the hybridogenetic system Pelophylax kl. esculentus in Italy, with which this species interacts, by Capula, Sacchi, and Razzetti, 2007, in Lanza et al. (eds.), Fauna d'Italia, 42 (Amph.): 386–392. See account for Pelophylax ridibundus in Italy by Capula, 2007, in Lanza et al. (eds.), Fauna d'Italia, 42 (Amph.): 402–404. Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2009, Fauna Sinica, Amph. 3: 1071–1075, noted that records from Xinjiang, China, are referable to Pelophylax terentievi. See comments by Speybroeck, Beukema, and Crochet, 2010, Zootaxa, 2492: 8, regarding the potential for cryptic species in nominal Pelophylax ridibundus in Europe. Bergers and Luijten, 2009, in Creemers and van Delft (eds.), Amph. Rept. Nederland: 242–247, provided a detail summary of the biology in the Netherlands, and Dorenbosch, 2009, in Creemers and van Delft (eds.), Amph. Rept. Nederland: : 236–241, provided a detailed account for the same area for its hybridogenetic associate "Rana esculenta". Rivera, Escoriza, Maluquer-Margalef, Arribas, and Carranza, 2011, Amf. Rept. Catalunya: 96–98, provided a brief account for northeastern Spain and adjacent France. Stojanov, Tzankov, and Naumov, 2011, Die Amph. Rept. Bulgariens: 239–246, provided a fairly detailed account and range map for Bulgaria (and for its hybridogenetic associate Pelophylax "esculentus" on page 233–238). Arakelyan, Danielyan, Corti, Sindaco, and Leviton, 2011, Herpetofauna of Armenia: 44–45, provided a brief account for Armenia and environs. Cogǎlniceanu, Székely, Samoilă, Iosif, Tudor, Plăiaşu, Stănescu, and Rozylowicz, 2013, ZooKeys, 296: 35–57, provided a dot map for Romania of this species and its hybridogenetic parasite Pelophylax kl. esculentus. Behbahani, Nokhbatolfoghahai, and Esmaeili, 2014, Iranian J. Anim. Biosyst., 10: 11–28, found significant interpopulational variation among sites in Fars Province, Iran, in life history and developmental patterns. Mikulíček, Kautman, Kautman, and Pruvost, 2014, J. Zool. Syst. Evol. Res., 53: 124–132, reported on hybridogenetic system with Pelophylax lessonae in western Slovakia (producing Pelophylax kl. esculenta). Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, Fahimi, Broomand, Yazdanian, Najafi-Majd, Hosseinian Yousefkani, Rezazadeh, Hosseinzadeh, Nasrabadi, Mashayekhi, Motesharei, Naderi, and Kazemi, 2015, Asian Herpetol. Res., 6: 257–290, reported on distribution and conservation status in Iran. Karaica, Buj, Čavlović, and Stanković, 2016, Salamandra, 52: 161–170, reported on comparative morphology and ecology of the Pelophylax ridibundus/Pelophylax lessonae/Pelophylax "esculentus" complex in Croatia. MtDNA analysis suggests that the specimens assigned to this nominal species in western Iran actually represent and unnamed species, according to Pesarakloo, Rastegar-Pouyani, Rastegar-Pouyani, Kami, Najibzadeh, Khosravani, and Oraie, 2017, MtDNA, Part A, 28: 392–398. Speybroeck, Beukema, Bok, and Van Der Voort, 2016, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Brit. Eur.: 185–187, provided a brief account for this species and its hybridogenetic associate, Pelophylax kl. grafi, and range map. Litvinchuk, Borkin, Litvinchuk, and Rosanov, 2015, Russ. J. Herpetol., 22: 188–196, reported on the hybridogenetic Pelophylax esculentus complex in Kaliningrad Oblast', Russia. Herczeg, Vörös, Christiansen, Benovics, and Mikulíček, 2016, J. Zool. Syst. Evol. Res., 55: 129–137, reported on the Pelophylax lessonae/Pelophylax ridibundus/Pelophylax kl. esculentus hybridogenetic system in eastern Hungary. Beşir and Gül, 2019, Herpetol. Notes, 12: 45–51, provided a dot map for Rize Province, northeastern Turkey. Lyapkov, Ermakov, and Titov, 2017, Zool. Zh., 9: 1384–1391, discussed an introduced hybrid population (with Pelophylax bedriagae) in the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia. Martin, Guillemin, Nivet-Mazerolles, Landsmann, Dubos, and Eudeline, 2017, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 11: 93–107, discussed the range in central Uzbekistan. Alshammari and Ibnrahim, 2018, Adv. Bioresearch, Agra, 9: 165–177, reported on habitat and localities in the Ha'il Region of north-central Saudi Arabia. Mulder, 2019, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 13: 162–172, reported the species from the Mount Ararat region of extreme eastern Turkey. See Dufresnes, 2019, Amph. Eur., N. Afr., & Middle East: 105, for brief summary of identifying morphology and biology, a range map, as well as a photograph. On p. 113, he provided an account of the hybridogenetic associate Pelophylax kl. esculentus (Pelophylax lessonae x Pelophylax ridibundus), and on p. 115 an account for another hybridogenetic associate, Pelophylax kl. grafi (Pelophylax perezi x Pelophylax ridibundus). Ermakov, Ivanov, Titov, Svinin, and Litvinchuk, 2019, Russ. J. Herpetol., 26: 367–370, reported on a multiplex PCR method for identifying Pelophylax ridibundus, Pelophylax bedriagae, and Pelophylax lessonae as well as the hybridogenetic associates Pelophylax kl. esculentus. Key to the species (as Pelophylax gigas), synonymy, distribution (including map), and access to literature provided for Iran by Safaei-Mahroo and Ghaffari, 2020, Compl. Guide Amph. Iran: 1–331. Papežík, Kubala, Jablonski, Doležálková-Kaštánková, Choleva, Benovics, and Mikulíček, 2021, Salamandra, 57: 105–123, discussed the difficulty of identifying this species in the Balkans from Pelophylax kurtmuelleri, Pelophylax shqipericus, and Pelophylax epeiroticus, and within a context of molecular markers provided the best characters for separating the species. Miura, Vershinin, Vershinina, Lebedinskii, Trofimov, Sitnikov, and Ito, 2021, Genes, 12 (244): 1–13, reported on intrapopulation variation in genome elimination in the hybridogenetic Pelophylax "esculentus" system. Gasimova, 2021, Biharean Biol., 15: 112–116, discussed the range in Azerbaijan, and provided a dot map. Mohaymeni, Nikcheh, Kami, and Mohammadi, 2022, J. Wildl. Biodivers., Arak, 6: 54–71, reported on morphological and morphometric variation in Pelophylax spp. of Iran, suggesting that the western populations be referred to Pelophylax cf. bedriagae and agreeing with Pesarakloo et al. (2017, above) that eastern populations in Iran represent an unnamed species. Nekrasova and Marushchak, 2023, Biodiversity Data J., 11(e99036): 1–15, modeled the distribution in Ukraine. 

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