Lithobates sphenocephalus

An older name, Rana utricularia (unjustifiably changed from the original Rana utricularius Harlan), was applied to this species by Pace (1974), and subsequently by various other authors, upsetting the long-standing use of the name sphenocephala; there is substantial doubt that Harlan meant to apply the name utricularius to this species and not to what is now known as Rana pipiens. In 1992, the ICZN ruled that sphenocephala has precedence over utricularius whenever the two names are considered to be synonyms. See Brown et al. (1990) and references cited therein for a detailed account of this issue.

The generic taxonomy of American ranids is controversial, with three nomenclatural arrangements being consistent with current understandings of phylogeny: The single-genus arrangement of Yuan et al. (2016) which placed all Eurasian Rana and Pseudorana as well as all American ranids into Rana; the three-genus model of Che et al. (2007), largely in agreement with the earlier arrangement by Frost et al. (2006), which recognizes Pseudorana in Asia, Rana in Eurasia and western North America, and Lithobates in the Americas; and a seven-genus model of Dubois et al. (2021) which recognizes Pseudorana, Rana, and Liuhurana in Eurasia and Amerana (the Pacific Coast ranids of North America), Aquarana (for the bullfrogs and allies), Boreorana (a monotypic genus for Wood Frog, L. sylvaticus), and Lithobates (for the leopard frogs and allies). Here we follow Nicholson (2025) who defer from recognizing Amerana, Aquarana, or Boreorana at this time pending achievement of more phylogenetic stability, especially with respect to the position of the taxon sylvaticus which inconsistently is recovered as sister to the proposed Aquarana or as sister to Lithobates.

Range includes the lowlands of the southeastern United States, from southern New York to the Florida Keys, and west to eastern Kansas, central Oklahoma, and eastern Texas (Conant and Collins 1991). Introduced on Little Bahama Bank (Schwartz and Henderson 1991). Hybridizes with Rana blairi along the Missouri River floodplain in Missouri (Parris 1999).

Represented by many and/or large occurrences throughout most of the range.

Traffic on roads near ponds may be a local threat. Palis (1994, Herpetol. Rev. 25:119) reported large numbers of road-killed individuals adjacent to a pond in Florida. Within a single population, families of leopard frogs vary in their tolerance to the insecticide carbaryl (Bridges and Semlitsch 2001).