Number of Pages: 4Integrative BiologyGeological Science

Platz, James E.

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Number of Pages: 4Integrative BiologyEarth and Planetary Science

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AMPHIBIA: ANURA: RANIDAE RANA BERLANDIERI Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles. Platz, J.E. 1991. Ram berlandien' Rana berlandieri Baird Rio Grande Leopard Frog Rana berhndim.Baird, 1859:27-28pigures 7-10 on Plate 36 aredes- ignated as "Rana berlandiee Baird." Type-locality: "Southern Texas generally." No typespecimen was designated. Lectotype (= cotype of Cochran, 1961:72), U.S. Natl. Mus. 131513 (Pace, 1974), an adult male from Brownsville, Cameron Co., Texas, collected by Capt. S. VanVliet (examined by author), date of col- lection unknown. Rana balecim berlandieri: Cope, 1875:32 (part). Rana bakcim austricola: Cope, 1886:517 (part). Ram oimscens atrshicola: Cope, 1889390 (part). Ram virescens berlandieri: Cope, 1889398 (part). Ram oirescens uirasam Cope, 1889:401 (part). Rana oirescens bracbyczpbala: Cope, 1889:403 (part). Ranapipiens berhndieri: Mittleman and Gier, 1942:13 (part). Ram terlandien' browtlorum Sanders, 197387 (part). Rana brownorum: Hillis et al., 1983:134 (part). Content. No subspecies are recognized. Dehition and Diagnosis. This large (56-1 12 mm SVL) species of the Rana pipiens complex is distinguished from other Figure 1. Adult female R a m  berlandievi from San Angelo, Tom Green Co., Texas, photograph by author. leopard frogs by a combination of traits. The supralabial stripe in adult specimens is incomplete (absent or diffuse anterior to the eye). Dorsolateral folds are well developed but broken, with the posterior portion displaced medially in the region of the base of the urostyle. Males exhibit external vocal sacs and possess prominent vestigial oviducts. The venter is a cream color with mottling on the chin of older individuals. The ventral surface of the upper thighs and adjacent skin on the belly may show a pale yellow color. The dorsum Map. The solid circle marks the type-locality; open circles indicate other localities; triangles designate populations involved in the vestigial oviduct polymorphism (see Comment); question marks identify possible fossil records (see Fossil Record). 0.5 1 .O TIME (sec.) I I Figure 2. Audiospectrogram of the mating trill of Rana berhndien' from Sitting Bull Falls, Eddy Co., New Mexico. Recorded by J.S. Frost and D.M. Hillis, July 1981. Water temperature was 17 C. contains numerous irregular dark spots on a background which may range in color from gray, gray green, or khaki green to bright green or brown. The advertisement call is a series of trills (notes) averaging 0.5 sec. at 15" C. Each note contains a variable number of pulses (9-1 1 at 15" C) producing a pulse rate of approximately 20 The vocal repertoire is complex and includes additional sounds includina "low amplituden trills,'grunts" and "grind" notes invarious cornbinkons. Live specimens of large tadpoles (to 95 mm) are olive with a yellow cast on the dorsum and sides. The iris is gold with minute flecks of black. The peritoneum is black dorsally, shading to gray ventrally. The tail coloration consists of dark and pale spots or a more sharply defied reticulate pattern of black and white. Descriptions. Cope (1889), Mittleman and Gier (1942), Wright and Wright (1949), Conant (1975), Stebbins (1985), and Conant and Collins (1991) provided descriptions of the adult. Scott and Jennings (1985) described the tadpole from New Mexico speci- mens. Illustrations. Cope (1889) illustrated an adult (the lectotype of Pace, 1974) as well as the ventral view of the front and hind foot. Wright and Wright (1949), provided black and white photos; photos 3-5 correspond to figures 9,10, and 7 of Cope's plate 36. Platz (1972) contains a black and whiie photo of an adult female. Conant (1975), Stebbii (1985), and Conant and Collins (1991) included colored il- lustrations of adults. Hilis (1982) provided line drawings of dorsal and lateral views of a tadpole. Scott and Jennings (1985) provided black and white photos and camera lucida drawings of the body, eye, lateral line system, and mouth parts of tadpoles. McAliiter (1962) providedsonograms of the chuckle call, Gambs and Littlejohn (1979) of the mating trill and chuckle call, and Frost (1982) and Platz et al. (1990) of the mating trill. Distribution. The species occurs naturally in Eddy County, New Mexico and at scattered locales in adjacent parts of west Texas (see Comment), east and north to Collin Co., and south from here to Calhoun Co. Populations are common from central and southern Texas south among the eastern states of Mexico and as far as northeastern Nicaragua. It has been introduced at some point in the last 25 years to southwestern Arizona and is now established at numerous sites along the lower Colorado River from the Mexican border north to Yuma and east along the Gila River to approximately Buckeye, Maricopa Co., Ariiona. Fossil Record. Dixon (1987) attributed partial skeletal re- mains from Bexar and Llano cos., Texas (reported by Holman, 1969) to R. berhndieri, but without reference to diagnostic features. Pertinent Literature. McAlister (1962) provided an assess- ment of mating call, mensural, and qualitative morphometric d i e r -  ences, as well as results of artificial crosses which compared R. berhndien'with R. sph-qhah over a 410 krn east-west transect in Texas. Littlejohn and Oldham (1968) provided mating call com- parisons. Purcell (1968) described artificial crosses between R. berlandienand the "plains type" (= R. blah) from the panhandle of Texas with high levels of abnormal development. Mecham (1969) made similar but more extensive comparisons involving crosses with specimens from bothTexas andMkico and several U.S. andMexican taxa. Salthe (1969) made an extensive comparison of electromorphs of lactate dehydrogenase and included R. berhndierifromTexas and New Mexico. Cuellar (1971) used artificial crosses to compare developmental compatibility ofR. berhndioiwith R. areohtaand R. sphenocqhah. Platz (1 972) used morphometric and electrophoretic data from a north-south transect inTexas to quantify hybrid E l  adult and juvenile levels, providing evidence that the species was distinct from the "plains type" (= R. blain). In a follow up study, Platz (1981) confumed backcross levels using electrophoretic markers and noted a dramatic change in the ratio of R. berhndien.and R. blairi, favoring the former. Hillis (1981) made a comparative study of sympatric and allopatricpopulationsof R. berhndieri, R. blain, and R. sphenocephah and found staggered breeding seasons in sympatry, indicating the importance of temporal premating isolation. H i i  (1982) compared sympatric samples of R. berlandien and R. sphenocephala tadpoles using multivariate morphometric analysis and found differences which would allow identification. Gambs and Littlejohn (1979) utilized playback experiments to determine the function of the chuckle call. Sage and Selander (1979) and Kocher and Sage (1986) used electrophoretic markers to characterize R. bedandim. and R. sphenocqhah along a transed in central Texas. Frost (1982) re- portedcross results comparing R. berhndim'from New Mexico, Texas, and eastern Mexico with R. mag~ocularisand R. berhndieri fowh (= R. forren)fromwestern Mkico, as well as R. berhdien' brownorum (= R. brownorum). Hillis et al. (1 983) used the enzymatic products of 50 loci to provide a cladistic analysis of the Ranapipiemcomplex in the United States and Mexico and assigned R. berlandierito the beta subdivision. Platz et al. (1990) identified introduced specimens of R. berhndieriin Ariiona and documented their recent range expansion along the lower Colorado and Gila rivers. . Remarks. Pace (1 974), Moore (1975), and Hillis (1988) each provided overviews of the Rampipiens complex which are useful in Figure 3. Lateral view of tadpole of Rana berlandim'from6.3 km W of Junction (townof), Kimble Co., Texas, Rt. 83 andCo. Rd. 1674, AMNH 214137. Drawn by Amy Lathrop. placing the status of R. berlandhi in perspective. mens from some extreme western Texas populations lack vestigial oviducts whereas other populations in this same area are polymor- Etymology. The name b l a n d h i  honors Jean Louis phic with respect to this trait. This anomaly also occurs in some Berlandier. populations in parts of M&co adjacent to western Texas. Hillis has found polymorphic electromorphs in the Texas populations to be in - Comment. According to Hillis (pers. comrn.), male speci- Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, which he interprets as evidence for conspecific status. Figure 4. Mouth pans of tadpole depicted in Fig. 3. Camera lucid? drawing by Amy Lathrop. Literature Cited Baird, S.P. 1859. Reptiles of the boundary, p. 1-35. In W.H. Emory, United States and Mexican boundary survey, Part 11, Zoology of the boundary. Dept. Interior, Washington, D.C. Cochran, D.M. 1961. Type specimens of reptiles and amphibians in the U.S. National Museum. Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus. 220:xv+ 291 p. Conant, R. 1975. A field guide to the reptiles and amphibians of east- em and central North America. 2nd ed. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. -and J.T. Collins. 1991. A field guide to the reptiles and amphib- ians, eastern and central North America. 3rded. HoughtonMiff- lin Co., Boston. Cope, E.D. 1875. Checklist of North AmericanBatrachia and Reptilia; with a systematiclist of the higher groups, and anessay on geo- graphic distribution. Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus. 1:l-104. - 1886. Synonymic list of the North American species of Bufoand Rana, with descriptions of some new species of Batrachia in the National Museum. h e r .  Phil. Soc. 23514-526. - . 1889. The Batrachia of North America. Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus. 34: 1-525. Cuellar, H.S. 1971. Levels of genetic compatibility of Rana areolata with members of the Ranapipimcomplex (Anura: Ranidae). Evolution 25:399-409. Dixon, J.R. 1987. Amphibians and reptiles of Texas with keys, taxo- nomic synopses, bibliography, and distribution maps. Texas I I Figure 5. Lateral line system of tadpole depicted in Fig. 3. Camera lucida drawing by Amy Lathrop. A&M Univ. Press, College Station. Frost, J.S. 1982. Functional genetic similarity betweengeographically separated populations of mexican leopard frogs (Ranapipims complex). Syst. Zool.31:57-67. Gambs, R.D. and M.J. Littlejohn. 1979. Acoustic behavior of mdes of the Rio Grande leopard frog (Rana berlandieri): an experimen- tal analysis through field playback trials. Copeia 1979643-650. Hillis, D.M. 1981. Premating isolating mechanisms among three spe- cies of the Ranapipiens complex in Texas and southern Okla- homa. Copeia 1981:312-319. -. 1982. Morphological diierentiation and adaptation of thelar- vae of R a m  berlandieriand Ranaspbenocephah(Rampipiens complex) in sympauy. Copeia 1982:168174. - 1988. Systematicsof the Ranapipienscomple~: puzzleandpara- digm. Ann. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 19:39-63. - ,J.S. Frost, andD.A. Wright. 1983. Phylogeny and biogeography of the Ranapipimcomplex: a biochemical evaluation. Syst. Zool.32:132-143. Holman, J.A. 1969. The Pleistocene amphibians and reptiles of Texas. Publ. Michigan St. Mus. Biol. Ser. 4:163-192 Kocher, T.D. and R.D. Sage. 1986. Further genetic analyses of a hy- bridzone between leopard frogs (Rampipiatscomplex) in cen- tral Texas. Evolution 40:21-33. Littlejohn, M.J. and R.S. Oldham 1968. Ranapipimcomplex: mating call structure and taxonomy. Science 162:1003-1005. McAlister, W.H. 1962. Variation in Rampipiens Schreber in Texas. h e r .  Midl. Nat. 67:335-363. Mecham, J.S. 1969. New information from experimental crosses on genetic relationships within the Ranapipiens species group. J. Exp. Zool. 170:169-180. Mittleman, M.B. and H.T. Gier. 1942. Notes on leopard frogs. Proc. New England 2061. Club. 20:7-15. Moore, J.A. 1975. Ranapipiens- the changing paradigm. h e r .  2001. 15:837-849. Pace, A.E. 1974. Systematic and biological studies of theleopard frogs (Rampipiens complex) of the United States. Univ. Michigan Mus. Zool. Misc. Publ. (148):l-140. Platz, J.E. 1972. Sympatric interaction between two forms of leopard frog (Ranapipiens complex) in Texas. Copeia 1972:232-40. -. 1981. Suture zone dynamics: Texas populations of Rana ber- landieri and R.blairi. Copeia 1981 :733-734. - , R.B. Clarkson, J.C. Rorabaugh, and D.M. Hiis.  1990. Rana berlandieri: recently introduced populations in Arizona and southwestern California. Copeia 1990:324-333. Purceu, J.W. 1968. Embryonic temperature adaptations in southwest- empopulations of Ranapipiens. M.S. thesis. TexasTech Univ., Lubbock. Sage, R.D. andR.K. Selander. 1979. Hybridization between species of the Ranapipienscomplex incentral Texas. Evolution 33:1069- 1088. Salthe, S.N. 1969. Geographicvariation of the lactate dehydrogenases of Ranapipiens and Ranapalust?+s. Biochem. Genet. 2:271- 303. Sanders, 0.1973. A new leopard frog (Rana berlandieri brownorum) from southern Mexico. J. Herpetol. 7:87-92. Scott, N.J., J r  and R.D. Jennings. 1985. The tadpoles of five species of New Mexican leopard frogs. Occ. Pap. Mus. Southwest. Biol. (3):l-21. Stebbii, R.C. 1985. A field guide to western reptiles and amphibians. 2nd ed. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. Wright, A.H. andA.A. Wright. 1949. Handbookoffrogsandtoads. 3rd ed. Cornstock. Ithaca, NY. James E. Platz, Department of Biology, Creighton University, Omaha, NE 681780103. Primary editor for this account, John D. Lynch. Published 15 October 1991 and Copyright Q 1991 by the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. 

Rana berlandieri

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Rana berlandieri

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