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

Rana japonica Boulenger, 1879

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

Rana temporaria var. japonica Günther, 1859 "1858", Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus.: 17. Syntypes: BMNH 1844.2.22.106A-B (Japan), 1854.2.10.26 (Ningpo); Chusan specimens probably lost according to Borkin, 1985, in Frost (ed.), Amph. Species World: 496; Boulenger, 1920, Rec. Indian Mus., 20: 95, designated as "types" 2 specimens from Japan, thus restricting the type locality. Type locality: "Ningpo" [= Ningbo Shi, Zhejiang Province, China]; "Chusan" (= Zhoushan Is., Zhejiang Province, China); "Japan"; restricted type locality is "Japan". Nomen nudum. See comment by O'Shaughnessy, 1881, Zool. Rec., 16: 15, and discussion by Dubois and Ohler, 1996 "1994", Zool. Polon., 39: 162.

Rana middendorffi Steenstrup, 1869, Vidensk. Medd. Dansk Naturhist. Foren., Ser. 2, 1869: 18. Types: ZMUC. Type locality: "Siberien". Synonymy by Boulenger, 1920, Rec. Indian Mus., 20: 93. Previously considered a junior synonym of Rana arvalis by Nikolskii, 1918, Fauna Rossii, Zemnovodnye: 52.Considered a nomen oblitum under the 1963 Code of Zoological Nomenclature by Borkin, 1975 "1974", Tezisy Dokladov Zool. Inst. Akad. Nauk SSSR, Leningrad, 1974: 6–7.

Rana japonica Boulenger, 1879, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 4: 190. Syntype(s): 3 specimens, presumably in MNHNP or BMNH. Type locality: "Japon".

Rana martensi Boulenger, 1886, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1886: 414. Syntypes: BMNH (1 specimen, BMNH 1886.6.22.26 [now renumbered by 1947.2.2.57] by museum records), ZMB (several specimens), by original designation. Type locality: "Yedo". Synonymy by Stejneger, 1907, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 58: 108; Kawamura, 1962, J. Sci. Hiroshima Univ., B—Zool., 20: 191.

Rana martensii — Boulenger, 1886, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 11: 599. Incorrect subsequent spelling.

Rana (Rana) japonica — Boulenger, 1920, Rec. Indian Mus., 20: 9. Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 41–42; by implication; Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 333; Yuan, Zhou, Chen, Poyarkov, Chen, Jang-Liaw, Chou, Matzke, Iizuka, Min, Kuzmin, Zhang, Cannatella, Hillis, and Che, 2016, Syst. Biol., 65: 835.

Rana temporaria var. martensi — Okada and Kawano, 1923, Zool. Mag., Tokyo, 35: 367.

Rana temporaria martensi — Okada, 1931, Tailless Batr. Japan. Empire: 118. Sato and Takashima, 1955, Misc. Rep. Yamashina Inst. Ornithol. Zool., 6: 260–268.

Rana (Rana) japonica japonica — Nakamura and Ueno, 1963, Japan. Rept. Amph. Color: 41.

Rana japonica japonica — Zhao, Tan, and Wu, 1987, Acta Zootaxon. Sinica, 12: 213–218.

Rana (Laurasiarana) japonica — Hillis and Wilcox, 2005, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 34: 311, by implication; see Dubois, 2006, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 42: 317–330, and Hillis, 2007, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 42: 331–338, for discussion.

English Names

Agile Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 108).

Japan Brown Frog (Maeda and Matsui, 1990, Frogs Toads Japan, Ed. 2: 47; Goris and Maeda, 2004, Guide Amph. Rept. Japan: 70).

Distribution

Japan (Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku Is., as well as the Tanegashima Group).

Comment

In the Section Rana, subgenus Rana, Rana japonica group of Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 333. See Stejneger, 1907, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 58: 107–113; Nakamura and Ueno, 1963, Japan. Rept. Amph. Color: 41–42; Liu, 1950, Fieldiana, Zool. Mem., 2: 285–292 (as Rana japonica and Rana chaochiaoensis); and Kuramoto, 1974, Copeia, 1974: 815–822. See comments under Rana chaochiaoensis and Rana longicrus. See nomenclature discussion by Tanaka, Matsui, and Takenaka, 1994, Zool. Sci., Tokyo, 11: 753–757, discussed the relationships of this species with Rana ornativentris, Rana pirica, Rana tagoi, and Rana sakuraii. Sumida and Nishioka, 1994, Sci. Rep. Lab. Amph. Biol. Hiroshima Univ., 13: 137–171, and Sumida, 1996, J. Herpetol., 30: 333–346, presented evidence suggestive of two cryptic species under this name in Japan. (This conclusion also reach by Highton, 2000, in Bruce et al., Biol. Plethodontid Salamanders: 236.) Sumida and Ogata, 1998, Zool. Sci., Tokyo, 15: 989–1000, and Sumida, 1997, Genes Genet. Syst., 72: 79–90, provided additional evidence from mtDNA sequences and restiction site analysis, respectively. See Tanaka-Ueno, Matsui, Sato, Takenaka, and Takenaka, 1998, Japan. J. Herpetol., 17: 91–97, for phylogenetic relationships and discussion. Formerly confused with Rana zhenhaiensis, Rana omeimontis, and Rana chaochiaoensis. Maeda and Matsui, 1990, Frogs Toads Japan, Ed. 2: 44–47, provided an account for Japan, noted an undescribed species from the Tohoku Distict and noted that Rana martensi might be conspecific. Goris and Maeda, 2004, Guide Amph. Rept. Japan: 70–72, provided an account, map, and photograph. Lu, Li, Wang, Wang, and Cui, 2005, Sichuan J. Zool., 24: 276–278, discussed and rejected records of Rana japonica from China. Kobayashi, Abe, Tomita, and Matsuki, 2018, Curr. Herpetol., Kyoto, 37: 11–22, reported on landscape genetics in Inba Lake, eastern Japan.

External links:

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For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.