Scaphiopus holbrookii (Harlan, 1835)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Scaphiopodidae > Genus: Scaphiopus > Species: Scaphiopus holbrookii

Rana holbrookii Harlan, 1835, Med. Phys. Res.: 105. Type(s): ANSP according to the original publication, though not in recent type catalogues. Type locality: "South Carolina", USA; restricted to "Charleston", South Carolina, USA, by Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 58. This restriction considered invalid by Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 261, for reason of not being based on evidence. 

Scaphiopus solitarius Holbrook, 1836, N. Am. Herpetol., 1: 85. Types: Inlcuding Frog figured in pl 12; not now known to exist. Type locality: "Carolina, Georgia, and . . . Tennessee", USA; restricted to "Charleston, South Carolina", USA by Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 58. This restriction considered invalid by Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 261, for reason of not being based on evidence. Synonymy (under Scaphiopus solitarius) by De Kay, 1842, Zool. New York, 1: 66, and Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 434. Synonymy (under Scaphiopus holbrookii) by Cope, 1863, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 15: 54; Jordan, 1878, Man. Vert. North. U.S., Ed. 2: 189; Cope, 1889, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 34: 298; Stejneger and Barbour, 1917, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept.: 26 (footnote).

Scaphiopus albus Garman, 1876, Proc. Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci., 25: 194. Syntypes: MCZ 1453 (12 specimens), according to Barbour and Loveridge, 1929, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 69: 334; Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 78 considered USNM 52403 a syntype (exchanged from MCZ), and Malnate, 1971, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 123: 349, also considered ANSP 26111 a syntype. Type locality: "on the island of Key West, [Monroe County,] Fl[orid]a", USA. Synonymy by Stejneger and Barbour, 1917, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept.: 26.

Scaphiopus holbrookii albus — Stejneger and Barbour, 1917, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept.: 26. Distinction from Scaphiopus holbrooki holbrooki rejected by Duellman, 1955, Copeia, 1955: 141–143.

Scaphiopus (Scaphiopus) holbrookii — Tanner, 1939, Great Basin Nat., 1: 6; Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 130.

English Names

Solitary Frog (Scaphiopus solitarius [no longer recognized]: Wood, 1863, Illust. Nat. Hist., 3: 163).

Holbrook's Spade Foot (Scaphiopus holbrookii: Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 25).

Holbrook's Spadefoot (Scaphiopus holbrookii holbrookii: Wright and Wright, 1933, Handb. Frogs Toads U.S. Canada: ix).

Hermit Spade-foot (Scaphiopus solitarius [no longer recognized]: De Kay, 1842, Zool. New York, 1: 66).

Hermit Spadefoot (Scaphiopus holbrookii holbrookii: Löding, 1922, Mus. Pap. Alabama Mus. Nat. Hist., 5: 9

Hermit Spadefoot (Scaphiopus holbrookii: Dickerson, 1906, The Frog Book: 53; Fowler, 1907, Annu. Rep. N.J. State Mus. for 1906: 92).

Solitary Spadefoot (Scaphiopus holbrookii: Jordan, 1878, Man. Vert. North. U.S., Ed. 2: 189; Jordan, 1884, Man. Vert. North. U.S., Ed. 4: 189; Brimley, 1907, J. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc., 23: 157; Tanner, 1939, Great Basin Nat., 1: 7).

Eastern Spadefoot (Scaphiopus holbrookii: Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 58; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 177; Conant, 1975, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am., Ed. 2: 299; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 13; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 14; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 16; Frost, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2008, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 37: 11; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 9; Frost, McDiarmid, Mendelson, and Green, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 21; Frost, Lemmon, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 20).

Eastern Spadefoot Toad (Scaphiopus holbrooki: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 96).

Key West Spadefoot (Scaphiopus holbrooki albus [no longer recognized]: Wright and Wright, 1933, Handb. Frogs Toads U.S. Canada: ix; Carr, 1940, Univ. Florida Biol. Sci. Ser., 3: 53; Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 58; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 177).

Distribution

Massachusetts to Florida and west to eastern Louisiana, then north through eastern Arkansas and southeastern Missouri, extreme southern Illinois, southern Indiana and southern Ohio, and all of Kentucky and Tennessee, USA.

Comment

Wasserman, 1968, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 70: 1–2, Palis, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 511–513, and Dodd, 2013, Frogs U.S. and Canada, 2: 771–772, provided accounts that summarized relevant literature. Elliot, Gerhardt, and Davidson, 2009, Frogs and Toads of N. Am.: 256–259, provided an account, photos, and advertisement call. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 249–250, provided an account of larval morphology and biology. See account of biology and life history in southern Florida by Meshaka and Lane, 2015, Herpetol. Conserv. Biol., 10 (Monogr. 5): 89–92.  

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.