Rana uenoi Matsui, 2014

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

Rana uenoi Matsui, 2014, Zool. Sci., Tokyo, 31: 614. Holotype: KUHE 43484, an adult male from Mitake, Kamiagatamachi, Tsushima-shi, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan (36°34′36″ N, 129°22′25″ E, 160 m a.s.l.)". 

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

English Names

Korean Large Brown Frog (Jeon, Cho, Suk, Lee, Borzée, Song, Lee, and Min, 2021, Salamandra, 57: 536).

Distribution

Tsushima Island, Japan, as well as Rep. Korea to as far north as the vicinity of Pyongyang, PDR Korea. 

Geographic Occurrence

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

Comment

See comment under Rana dybowskii with which this species was long confused and for which the assignment of populations in PDR Korea remain problematic due to lack of material. Yang, Zhou, Min, Matsui, Dong, Li, and Fong, 2017, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 112: 148–157, reported on the molecular phylogenetics and biogeography of this species within the Rana dybowskii species complex. Song, Chang, and Chung, 2005, Korean J. Environment. Biol., 23: 157–162, compared this Korean frog (as Rana dybowskii) to the other Brown Frogs in Korea and Rana tsishimensis. Suk, Jeon, Kim, Cha, and Min, 2021, MtDNA, Part B, 6: 689–690, reported on the mtDNA genome. 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): 10; these authors noted that morphological characters to separate Rana uenoi and Rana dybowskii have yet to be described as has the contact zone in PDR Korea, although these authors reported a genetically confirmed locality near Pyongyang, PDR Korea. Jeon, Cho, Suk, Lee, Borzée, Song, Lee, and Min, 2021, Salamandra, 57: 529–540, found two distinct groups via mtDNA analysis within Rana uenoi, one on the Korean mainland and Japanese Tsushima Island and the second on Jeju Island (Rep. Korea), with the likely scenario being the Jeju Island population originating from mainland Korea during the Pleistocene. Andersen, Chuang, Choe, Kim, Kwon, Jang, and Borzée, 2022, Zool. Stud., Taipei, 61(25): 1–10, reported on the elevational range (0–1316 m) in Rep. Korea. Jung, Choi, Suh, and Do, 2024, Curr. Herpetol., Kyoto, 43: 135–147, discussed the current and expected range under climate change within Rep. Korea. 

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