Amerana aurora (Baird and Girard, 1852)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Ranidae > Genus: Amerana > Species: Amerana aurora

Rana aurora Baird and Girard, 1852, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 6: 174. Syntypes: Not stated; USNM 11711 (4 specimens) according to Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 72. Type locality: "Puget Sound", Washington, USA.

Rana temporaria auroraCope, 1875, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 1: 32; Yarrow and Henshaw, 1878, Annu. Rep. Chief of Engineers for 1878. Appendix L. Rep. Rept. Batr. 1875–1877 California Arizona Nevada: 209.

Rana agilis auroraCope, 1886, Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., 23: 521; Cope, 1889, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 34: 439.

Rana aurora auroraCamp, 1917, Univ. California Publ. Zool., 17: 115–125.

Rana (Rana) auroraDubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 41, by implication.

Rana (Aurorana) auroraDubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 322.

Rana auroraShaffer, Fellers, Voss, Oliver, and Pauly, 2004, Mol. Ecol., 13: 2667.

Rana (Laurasiarana, Amerana) auroraHillis 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. Invalid name formulation under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (1999) as discussed by Dubois, 2007, Cladistics, 23: 395.

Rana (Amerana) auroraDubois, 2006, C. R. Biol., Paris, 329: 830; Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 391; Yuan, Zhou, Chen, Poyarkov, Chen, Jang-Liaw, Chou, Matzke, Iizuka, Min, Kuzmin, Zhang, Cannatella, Hillis, and Che, 2016, Syst. Biol., 65: 835.

Aurorana auroraFei, Ye, and Jiang, 2010, Herpetol. Sinica, 12: 37. See comment under Ranidae record.

Amerana aurora — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 424. 

English Names

Western Wood Frog (Rana aurora: Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 25).

Red-legged Frog (Rana aurora: Stebbins, 1951, Amph. W. North Am.: 334; Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 84; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 176; Stebbins, 1966, Field Guide W. North Am. Rept. Amph.: 70; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 12; Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 27; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 106; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 13; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 14; Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 225).

Oregon Red-legged Frog (Rana aurora aurora: Storer, 1925, Univ. California Publ. Zool., 27: 43; Wright and Wright, 1933, Handb. Frogs Toads U.S. Canada: xi; Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 85),

Northern Red-legged Frog (Rana aurora aurora: Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 176; Stebbins, 1966, Field Guide W. North Am. Rept. Amph.: 71; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 12; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 106; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 13; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 14; Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 226).

Northern Red-legged Frog (Rana aurora: Frost, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2008, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 37: 10; 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: 20; Frost, Lemmon, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 18).

Distribution

Southwestern British Columbia and Vancouver Island south along the Pacific coast to Mendocino County, California, USA; isolated record in southeastern Alaska.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Canada, United States of America, United States of America - Alaska, United States of America - California, United States of America - Nevada

Comment

In the Rana boylii group of North American authors. In the Rana aurora group of Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 42, in the equivalent Section Amerana, subgenus Aurorana of Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 322. (Although Aurorana was shown by Hillis and Wilcox, 2005, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 34: 305, to be paraphyletic with respect to Amerana.) Reviewed by Altig and Dumas, 1972, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 160: 1–4. Hayes and Miyamoto, 1984, Copeia, 1984: 1018–1022, suggested that Rana aurora aurora and Rana aurora draytoni might be distinct species. Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 322, considered Rana aurora draytoni a distinct species without discussion. Shaffer, Fellers, Voss, Oliver, and Pauly, 2004, Mol. Ecol., 13: 2667–2677, discussed molecular phylogeography, presented data in support of Rana draytonii and Rana aurora being different species, and suggested that Rana aurora is more closely related to Rana cascadae than to Rana draytonii. Conlon, Al-Ghafari, Coquet, Leprince, Jouenne, Vaudry, and Davidson, 2006, Peptides, 27: 1305–1312, provided evidence from skin peptides that Rana aurora and Rana draytonii are distinct species. Ovaska, Hyatt, and Sopuck, 2002, Herpetol. Rev., 33: 318, discussed the history of introductions in the Queen Charlotte Islands and vicinity, western Canada. Pauly, Ron, and Lerum, 2008, J. Herpetol., 42: 668–679, reported on the phylogeogeography and ecology of these extralimital populations of Rana cascadae, Rana draytonii, and Rana aurora. See statement of geographic range, habitat, and conservation status in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 631. Pauly, Ron, and Lerum, 2008, J. Herpetol., 42: 668–679, reported on molecular phylogeography and demonstrated that Rana aurora and Rana draytonii are not each others' closest relatives. Pearl, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 528–530, and Dodd, 2013, Frogs U.S. and Canada, 2 : 687–697, provided account that summarized relevant literature. Elliot, Gerhardt, and Davidson, 2009, Frogs and Toads of N. Am.: 238–241, provided an account, photos, and advertisement call. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 241–242, provided an account of larval morphology and biology. 

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