Rana coreana Okada, 1928

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Ranidae > Genus: Rana > Species: Rana coreana

Rana temporaria coreana Okada, 1928, Chosen Nat. Hist. Soc. J., 6: 33. Type(s): TIU, according to XXX, although presumably destroyed in WWII. Type localities: Korea: Gyeongseong Incheon: Kaeseong: Songdo and Korea: Gyeonggi-do: Suwon: Seungsan [translated from the Japanese]. A specimen from "Chemulpo [= incheon, Rep. Korea], Korea", cited by Stejneger, 1907, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 58: 111 (as Rana japonica, was also mentioned in the original publication as being of this species. 

Rana amurensis coreanaShannon, 1956, Herpetologica, 12: 38; Nakamura and Ueno, 1963, Japan. Rept. Amph. Color: 37.

Rana coreanaTomasik, 1967, Przeglad Zoologiczny, 11: 367; Song, Matsui, Chung, Oh, and Shao, 2006, Zool. Sci., Tokyo, 23: 219-224.

Rana kunyuensis Lu and Li, 2002, Acta Zootaxon. Sinica, 27: 162, 166. Holotype: YT 980601, by original designation. Type locality: "Mt. Kunyu, Jiaodong Peninsula, Shandong Province (37° 17′ N, 121° 37′ E); altitude 400 m", China. Synonymy by Zhou, Yang, Li, Min, Fong, Dong, and Zhou, 2015, J. Herpetol., 49: 302. 

Rana (Rana) coreana — Yuan, Zhou, Chen, Poyarkov, Chen, Jang-Liaw, Chou, Matzke, Iizuka, Min, Kuzmin, Zhang, Cannatella, Hillis, and Che, 2016, Syst. Biol., 65: 835.

Rana (Rana) kunyensis — Yuan, Zhou, Chen, Poyarkov, Chen, Jang-Liaw, Chou, Matzke, Iizuka, Min, Kuzmin, Zhang, Cannatella, Hillis, and Che, 2016, Syst. Biol., 65: 835.

English Names

None noted. 

Distribution

The plains of of the Korean Peninsula north to western and east-central P.D.R. Korea; Shenyang, Liaoning Province, and Mount Kunyu, Shandong Province, China; isolated record from Paeku Mountain, northeastern P.D.R. Korea. 

Geographic Occurrence

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

Comment

Song, Matsui, Chung, Oh, and Shao, 2006, Zool. Sci., Tokyo, 23: 219–224, demonstrated the status of this species distinct from Rana amurensis but did not delimit its range precisely. Nominal Rana kunyuensis was considered to be similar to Rana chensinensis according to the original publication. Song, Chang, and Chung, 2005, Korean J. Environment. Biol., 23: 157–162, compared this Korean frog to the other Brown Frogs in Korea and Rana tsishimensis. Species distinctiveness of Rana kunuensis from Rana chensinensis confirmed and larvae compared by Lu, Sun, Ma, Zhou, and Li, 2002, Herpetol. Sinica, 9: 23–27. In the Rana amurensis group of  Fei, Ye, Huang, Jiang, and Xie, 2005, in Fei et al. (eds.), Illust. Key Chinese Amph.: 107. Li, Lu, and Li, 2005, Sichuan J. Zool., 24: 268–270, provided a distribution map (as Rana kunuensis) for China. Che, Pang, Zhao, Matsui, and Zhang, 2007, Zool. Sci., Tokyo, 24: 71–80, reported on the phylogenetic position of Rana kunuensis, considering on the basis of mtDNA data it to be the sister taxon of Rana amurensisFei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2009, Fauna Sinica, Amph. 3: 1038–1042, provided an account (as Rana kunuensis), figures, and map for China and included it in their Rana amurensis group. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2010, Colored Atlas of Chinese Amph.: 276–277, provided a brief account (as Rana kunuensis) including photographs. Zhou, Yang, Li, Min, Fong, Dong, and Zhou, 2015, J. Herpetol., 49: 302–306, demonstrated that Rana kunyuensis is the same species as Rana coreana, albeit from an isolated population. Dot map and discussion of status for P.D.R. Korea provided by Song, 2016, J. Natl. Park Res., Rep. Korea, 7: 211–217. 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 (0–838 m) in Rep. Korea. Zhou, Yu, Miao, Zhai, Xu, and Guan, 2022, Chinese J. Zool., 57: 944–950, provided a genetically-confirmed record from Puhe Wetland Park, Liaozhong District, Shenyang (41°30′55″ N, 122°78′30″ E, elevation 30 m), China. Kim, Kim, Min, Choi, Kim, Bhak, and An, 2023, MtDNA, Part B, 8: 742–745, reported on  the complete mtDNA genome, provided a molecular tree placing this species as the sister of nominal Rana kunyuensis, and suggested that nuDNA be employed to verify its synonymy. 

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