Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
Single word	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Pelophylax saharicus (Boulenger, 1913)

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

Rana esculenta var. Latastei Camerano, 1882 "1881", C. R. Assoc. Franç. Avanc. Sci., Paris, 10: 689. Syntypes: MZUT and MBL, according to XXX. Type locality: "dans la partie nord et ouest de l'Afrique et dans l Portugal; j'en ai examiné plusieurs individus de Tanger, Larache, Casablanca, Mogador, Rabat, dans le Maroc, et aussi quelques exemplaires de l'Algérie". Primary homonym of Rana latastei Boulenger, 1879. Synonymy by Dubois and Ohler, 1996 "1994", Zool. Polon., 39: 168.

Rana esculenta var. latastii — Boulenger, 1883, Zool. Rec., 19: 19. Misspelling.

Rana esculenta var. saharica Boulenger In Hartert, 1913, Novit. Zool., 20: 84. Syntypes: BMNH 1912.11.9.136-145, 1912.11.9.147-156, and 8 unnumbered specimens, according to XXX. Type locality: "in the 'lake' at El-Golea [Golea, Laghout], and in the ditches of the Tidikelt oases called Igosten and In-Salah [= Salah Oasis, Tamanrasset]", Algeria. Restricted to Ain Salah oasis by Eiselt and Schmidtler, 1973, Ann. Naturhist. Mus. Wien, 77: 223. Hemmer, Konrad, and Bachmann, 1980, Amphibia-Reptilia, 1: 41-48, suggested this name may attach to a hybridogenetic hemilineage.

Rana ridibunda saharica — Terentjev, 1927, Zool. Anz., 74: 82.

Rana zavattarii Scortecci, 1936, Atti Soc. Ital. Sci. Nat. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Milano, 75: 135. Syntypes: MSNM (10 specimens); lost according to Dubois and Ohler, 1996 "1994", Zool. Polon., 39: 174, in error, at least in part, according to Blackburn and Scali, 2014, Herpetol. Monogr., 28: 36, who discussed the material and identified MSNM 50 (1 specimen), 261 (5 tadpoles), and 1445 (1 specimen) as syntypes. Type locality: "oasi di Elbarkat a pochi chilometri a sud di Gat", Libya. Synonymy (with Rana ridibunda saharica) by Eiselt and Schmidtler, 1973, Ann. Naturhist. Mus. Wien, 77: 232; Salvador, 1996, Smithson. Herpetol. Inform. Serv., 109: 32.

Rana ridibunda riodeoroi Salvador and Peris, 1975 "1974", Bol. Est. Centr. Ecol. Madrid, 4: 49. Holotype: MNCN 9930, by original designation. Type locality: "Huerta al Hatri (Edchera)", Western Sahara. Synonymy by Salvador, 1996, Smithson. Herpetol. Inform. Serv., 109: 32; Dubois and Ohler, 1996 "1994", Zool. Polon., 39: 177.

Rana (Rana) saharica — Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 41, by implication.

Rana (Pelophylax) saharica — Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 332.

Rana saharica riodeori — Arano, Llorente, Montori, Buckley, and Herrero, 1998, Herpetol. J., 8: 57-64; Géniez, Mateo, and Bons, 2001 "2000", Herpetozoa, Wien, 13: 152.

Rana saharica saharica — Arano, Llorente, Montori, Buckley, and Herrero, 1998, Herpetol. J., 8: 57-64; Géniez, Mateo, and Bons, 2001 "2000", Herpetozoa, Wien, 13: 152.

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

Pelophylax saharicus — 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.

English Names

Sahara Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 109).

North African Frog (Beukema, de Pous, Donaire-Barroso, Bogaerts, Garcia-Porta, Escoriza, Arribas, El Mouden, and Carranza, 2013, Zootaxa, 3661: 49).

Sahara Green Frog (Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 384).

Distribution

Morocco (and adjacent Western Sahara) through Algeria to Tunisia and northern and southwestern Libya, Siwa Oasis, northwestern Egypt. Also known from localities near the Hoggar Massif in southern Algeria; Ceuta and Melilla (Spain).

Comment

Prior to Uzzell, 1982, Amphibia-Reptilia, 3: 135-143 (who provisionally resurrected the name), this species was considered to be a synonym of Rana perezi, or, following Pasteur and Bons, 1959, Trav. Inst. Scient. Chérifien, Rabat, Ser. Zool., 17: 1-241, a synonym of Rana ridibunda. Although northwest African members of the "Pelophylax esculentus" complex are here tentatively regarded as Pelophylax saharicus, Hemmer, Konrad, and Bachmann, 1980, Amphibia-Reptilia, 1: 41-48, suggested that two species were hybridizing in North Africa. Steinwarz and Schneider, 1991, Bonn. Zool. Beitr., 42: 283-297, considered Rana saharica to likely be a junior synonym of Rana perezi. Populations of the "Rana esculenta" complex of Arabia are not currently allocated to species. See Salvador, 1996, Smithson. Herpetol. Inform. Serv., 109, for account. See Plötner, 1998, J. Zool. Syst. Evol. Res., 36: 191-201, for discussion of relationships who suggested a sister-taxon relationship with Rana perezi. Arano, Llorente, Montori, Buckley, and Herrero, 1998, Herpetol. J., 8: 57-64, discussed population-level phylogeny and biogeography. See Géniez, Mateo, and Bons, 2001 "2000", Herpetozoa, Wien, 13: 152, for Western Sahara record. 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 (as Rana) in the topology Rana saharica (Pelophylax cretensis (Pelophylax perezi (Pelophylax shqipericus (Pelophylax epeiroticus ("Pelophylax lessonae" + Pelophylax ridibundus))))). Baha El Din, 2006, Guide Rept. Amph. Egypt: 43-45, provided an account for Egypt. Géniez, Mateo, Geniez, and Pether, 2004, Amph. Rept. W. Sahara: 39-41, provided a brief account for Western Sahara. Amor, Farjallah, and Said, 2009, Afr. Zool., 44: 194-203, reported on geographic variation in Tunisia. Amor, Farjallah, Ben-Yacoub, Merella, and Said, 2010, Curr. Zool., Chengdu, 56: 678-686, reported on significant morphometric variation among populations in Algeria and Tunisia. Farjallah, Amor, Merella, and Said, 2012, Pakistan J. Zool., 44: 901-907, reported on patterns of genetic diversity in Tunisia. Beukema, de Pous, Donaire-Barroso, Bogaerts, Garcia-Porta, Escoriza, Arribas, El Mouden, and Carranza, 2013, Zootaxa, 3661: 49-50, provided an account or Morocco. Lansari, Vences, Hauswaldt, Hendrix, Donaire-Barroso, Bouazza, Joger, El Mouden, and Slimani, 2015, Amphibia-Reptilia, 36: 437–443, discussed the mtDNA haplotype differences in populations north and south of the Atlas Massif in Morocco. Nicolas, Mataame, Crochet, Géniez, and Ohler, 2015, J. Zool. Syst. Evol. Res., 53: 239–248, reported on molecular phylogeography. See detailed account for North Africa by Escoriza and Ben Hassine, 2019, Amph. N. Afr.: 218–229. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 384–385, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. See Dufresnes, 2019, Amph. Eur., N. Afr., & Middle East: 104, for brief summary of identifying morphology and biology, a range map, as well as a photograph (see p. 198 for photographs and map of subspecies).

External links:

Please note: these links will take you to external websites not affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History. We are not responsible for their content.

For additional sources of information from other sites search Google
For images search CalPhoto Images and Google Images
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 related information on conservation and images as well as observation see iNaturalist; for a quick link to their maps see iNaturalist KML
For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.