Earth and Space News: October 2010

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

North American Atlantic Coast Leopard Frog Habitats Are Weedy and Wet

Summary: North American Atlantic coast leopard frog habitats are weedy and wet meadows and marshes within the I-95 corridor from Connecticut through North Carolina.

North American Atlantic coast leopard frog habitats are freshwater, open-canopied, shallow, slow-flowing, weedy and wet meadows and marshes with cattails, maples and reeds within the I-95 corridor from Connecticut through North Carolina.

Atlantic coast leopard frogs bear their common name for biogeographies based in Atlantic coastlines, leopard-like spots on their backs and legs; and Ranidae true-frogs family membership. The common name Kauffeld’s frog and the scientific name Rana kauffeldi (from Latin rāna, “frog” and kauffeldi) commemorate Carl Frederick Kauffeld (April 11, 1911-July 10, 1974). Kauffeld predictions about a pink-bodied, third species in 1936-1937 and dissertation research at Rutgers University in New Jersey in 2008-2014 by Jeremy Feinberg determine scientific designations.

The ranid (from Latin rāna, [“frog”] and Greek ειδής [-“like”] via Latin –idæ) expects wetland complexes of early successional cattails, reeds, shrubs; flooded meadows; and open-canopied marshes.

The Anura (from Greek ἀν-, “not” and οὐρά, “tail” via ανοὐρά) amphibian order member favors March through August, sometimes October and sometimes November as breeding-season months.

Temperatures from 50 to 64.4 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 18 degrees Celsius galvanize adult females annually gestating 3,000 to 6,000 flat, white, 0.067-inch (1.7-millimeter) diameter eggs. Ephemeral pools, flooded meadows, freshwater wetlands, open-canopied marshes, riverside floodplains, slow-flowing streams and tide-influenced backwaters in fragmented coastal lowlands and uplands then house the egg-hatched tadpoles. Gill-breathing, herbivorous (from Latin herba [“grass”] and vorō [“I devour”] tadpoles inhabit boggy wetlands inimical to northern and southern leopard frog tadpoles 2 to 3 years.

Air, land and water pollution and temperatures outside 59 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit (16 and 27 degrees Celsius) jeopardize North American Atlantic coast leopard frog habitats.

Six- to 9-year life expectancies keep North American Atlantic coastal leopard frogs as fish-like tadpoles until the latter know 2.56- to 3.27-inch (65- to 83-millimeter) lengths.

Dr. Kauffeld looked to Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, northern and southern leopard frogs’ respective coastal limits, as likely lodging an overlapping, pink-bellied, third species. The male manages axillary amplexus (armpit embrace) by maintaining forelimbs behind his mate's front legs while mounted on her back to fertilize dark, sticky eggs externally. Tadpoles need algae, organic debris, plant tissue and suspended matter even though beetles, caterpillars, crickets, flies, mosquitoes, moths, pillbugs, sowbugs, spiders, stinkbugs and worms nourish adults.

North American carpenter frog habitats offer season's coldest temperatures, north to southward, from minus 10 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23.33 to minus 12.22 degrees Celsius).

Artificial and natural ditches, lakes, marshes, ponds, sloughs and swamps with bay laurel-dominant, cypress-dominated emergent, floating, submerged, waterside grassy, herbaceous, weedy, woody plants promote green treefrogs.

Calls, genetics and both respectively queue into 484.6-mile- (780-kilometer-) long distribution ranges Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia; Connecticut; and New Jersey and New York. Adults reveal heads of greater length than width, two circlar tympanic-membraned eardrums 65-plus percent larger than protuberant ee diameters and dorsolateral folds from eyes to hindlimbs. They seem morphologically similar to overlapping northern and southern leopard frog bodies even though their low-pitched, single-pulsed chuck sounds dissimilar to northerners' slow snores and southerners' swift stutters.

North American Atlantic coast leopard frog habitats tender short forelimbs with unwebbed fingers, long rearlimbs with webbed toes, paired vocal sacs behind eardrums, cream-colored abdomens and brown-spotted blue-gray-green-mint bodies.

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Photographs of Rana kauffeldi sp. nov. holotype (YPM 13217) show live male (a) whole body, dorsolateral view (photograph by BRC Brian R. Curry) and (b) dorsal view (photograph by BZ Brian Zarate) and preserved male (a) dorsal view and (b) ventral view (photographs by GWC Gregory Watkins-Colwell); Jeremy A. Feinberg, Catherine E. Newman, Gregory J. Watkins-Colwell, Matthew D. Schlesinger, Brian Zarate, Brian R. Curry, H. Bradley Shaffer and Joanna Burger, "Cryptic Diversity in Metropolis: Confirmation of a New Leopard Frog Species (Anura: Ranidae) from New York City and Surrounding Atlantic Coast Regions," PLOS ONE, Oct. 29, 2014, Figure 2: Brian R. Curry, Gregory Watkins-Colwell, Brian Zarate, CC BY 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rana_kauffeldi_holotype.png; CC BY 4.0 International, research article, via PLOS ONE @ https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0108213; CC BY 4.0 International, Figure 2, via PLOS ONE @ https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0108213

Leopard frog distributions in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic U.S. show (left) currently recognized IUCN (2012) range maps for Rana pipiens and R. sphenocephala, with potential overlap areas and (right) newly interpreted distributions including Rana kauffeldi with R. pipiens and R. sphenocephala; Jeremy A. Feinberg, Catherine E. Newman, Gregory J. Watkins-Colwell, Matthew D. Schlesinger, Brian Zarate, Brian R. Curry, H. Bradley Shaffer and Joanna Burger, "Cryptic Diversity in Metropolis: Confirmation of a New Leopard Frog Species (Anura: Ranidae) from New York City and Surrounding Atlantic Coast Regions," PLOS ONE, Oct. 29, 2014, Figure 1: CC BY 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Atlantic-Coast-leopard-frog-distribution.png; CC BY 4.0 International, research article, via PLOS ONE @ https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0108213; CC BY 4.0 International, Figure 1, via PLOS ONE @ https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0108213

For further information:

Baggaley, Kate. 29 October 2014. “New Frog Species Discovered in New York City.” Science News.org. Washington, D.C.: Magazine of the Society for Science & the Public. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
Available at: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/new-frog-species-discovered-new-york-city

"Carl Kauffeld." Mombu.com: Mombu the Reptiles Forum > Reptiles. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
Available at: http://www.mombu.com/reptiles/reptiles/t-carl-kauffeld-1717120.html

CBC. 30 October 2014. “New Leopard Frog Species Found in New York City. Canada News. Yahoo! News Network. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
Available at: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/leopard-frog-species-found-york-161933926.html

Chamary, J.V. 31 October 2014. “New Frog Species Discovered in New York City.” Forbes.com: Innovation & Science. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchamary/2014/10/31/new-frog-new-york/

Dörfler, Ignaz. 1907. Botaniker-Porträts. Wien (Vienna), Austria: I. Dörfler.

Edmonds, Devin. 13 June 2005. “Leopard Frogs (Rana pipiens and R. utricularia).” Amphibian Care: Caresheets. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
Available at: http://www.amphibiancare.com/frogs/caresheets/leopardfrog.html

Elliott, Lang; Gerhardt, Carl; and Davidson, Carlos. 2009. "Northern Leopard Frog." Pages 216-219. In: The Frogs and Toads of North America: A Comprehensive Guide to Their Identification, Behavior, and Calls. Boston, MA; and New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Elliott, Lang; Gerhardt, Carl; and Davidson, Carlos. 2009. "Southern Leopard Frog." Pages 220-223. In: The Frogs and Toads of North America: A Comprehensive Guide to Their Identification, Behavior, and Calls. Boston, MA; and New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Feinberg, J.A.; Newman, C.E.; Watkins-Colwell, G.J.; Schlesinger, M.D.; Zarate, B.; Curry, B.R.; Shaffer, H.Bradley; Burger, J. 2014. "Cryptic Diversity in Metropolis: Confirmation of a New Leopard Frog Species (Anura: Ranidae) From New York City and Surrounding Atlantic Coast Regions." PLoS ONE 9(10):e108213. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0108213

Gidman, Jenn. 30 October 2014. “New Frog Species Has Croak Unlike Any Other.” Newser.com: Science. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
Available at: http://www.newser.com/story/197969/scientists-hit-jackpot-with-new-cryptic-species-of-frog.html

Griggs, Brandon. 31 October 2014. “New Species of Frog Found in … NYC.” News 4 Jax.com: News > U.S./World News. Jacksonville, FL: WJXT. CNN.com: U.S. Edition. Atlanta, GA: Cable News Network, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
Available at: http://myfox8.com/2014/10/31/new-frog-species-found-habitat-stretches-to-nc/
Available at: http://www.news4jax.com/news/us-world-news/new-species-of-frog-found-in-nyc/29459012
Available at: http://pix11.com/2014/10/31/new-species-of-frog-discovered-on-staten-island/
Available at: http://www.wgal.com/national/new-species-of-frog-found-in-nyc/29459012

Keim, Brandon. 29 October 2014. "Big City, Big Surprise: New York City's Newest Species Is a Frog." National Geographic (USA): News > Animals. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
Available at: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141029-frog-species-new-york-city/

Keown, Gerald. 10 July 2008. “In Memory of Carl Kauffled.” Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research: SWCHR Forums. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
Available at: http://southwesternherp.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1215719054

Lally, Robin. 29 October 2014. “New Frog Discovered Inhabiting I-95 Corridor from Connecticut to North Carolina.” EurekAlert!.org: Public Releases. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
Available at: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-10/ru-nfd102714.php

"Leopard Frog." Frog World.net. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
Available at: http://frogworld.net/leopard-frog/

"Lithobates pipiens."." Page 460. In: David Burnie and Don E. Wilson. (Eds.) Smithsonian Animal: The Definitive Visual Guide. Revised and Updated. New York NY: DK Publishing, 2011.

Marriner, Derdriu. 2014. "Atlantic Coast Leopard Frogs (Rana kauffeldi): Discoveries on Staten Island by Jeremy Feinberg." Wizzley > Pets and Animals.
Available @ https://wizzley.com/atlantic-coast-leopard-frogs-rana-kauffeldi-discoveries-on-staten-island-by-jeremy-feinberg/

Netburn, Deborah. 29 October 2014. "New Species of Frog Found in New York City -- First Time Since 1882." LA Times.com: Science > Science Now. Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
Available at: http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-new-york-city-frog-20141029-story.html

Newman, Catherine E.; Feinberg, Jeremy A.; Rissler, Leslie J.; Burger, Joanna; Shaffer, H. Bradley. 2 May 2012. “A New Species of Leopard Frog (Anura: Ranidae) From the Urban Northeastern US.” Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 63(2):445-455.

Nuwer, Rachel. 29 October 2014. "New Leopard Frog Found in New York City." Smithsonian.com: Science > Nature. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
Available at: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/new-leopard-frog-found-new-york-city-180953182/?no-ist

otr2009. 31 October 2014. "New Leopard Frog Species Found in New York City." On the River. Blog by Martine Riviere. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
Available at: http://ontheriver09.wordpress.com/2014/10/31/new-leopard-frog-species-found-in-new-york-city/

Rafinesque-Schmaltz, C.S. 1814. Précis des Découvertes et Travaux Somiologiques.Palermo, Sicily: Royale Typographique Militaire.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library at: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/27701#page/9/mode/1up

Rafinesque-Schmaltz, C.S. 1814. Principes Fondamentaux de Somiologie. Palermo, Sicily.

Rafinesque-Schmaltz, C.S. 1814. Specchio delle Scienze. Palermo, Sicily.

Smith, Brett. 30 October 2014. “New Species of Leopard Frog Confirmed in New York City.” redOrbit.com: News > Science. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
Available at: http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1113268973/leopard-frog-in-new-york-rana-kauffeldi-103014/

Spotts, Pete. 30 October 2014. "New Leopard Frog Species Calls New Jersey's I-95 Corridor Home (+ Video)." The Christian Science Monitor: Science. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
Available at: http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/1030/New-leopard-frog-species-calls-New-Jersey-s-I-95-corridor-home-video

Stockton, Nick. 29 October 2014. “New Species of Frog Discovered in New York City.” WIRED.com: Science. Boone, IA: WIRED Magazine; and New York, NY: Condé Nast. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
Available at: http://www.wired.com/2014/10/new-species-frog-discovered-new-york-city/

"The 2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map." The National Gardening Association > Gardening Tools > Learning Library USDA Hardiness Zone > USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map.
Available @ https://garden.org/nga/zipzone/2012/

Turley, Jonathan. 15 March 2012. “Frogetaboutit: New Species of Frog Discovered in the Big Apple.” Jonathan Turley.org. Retrieved Novmeber 4, 2014.
Available at: http://jonathanturley.org/2012/03/15/frogetaboutit-new-species-of-frog-discovered-in-the-big-apple/

Turley, Jonathan. 30 October 2014. “Meet Rana Kauffeldi: The New Frog Species Named After the Man Who First Found It 80 Years Ago.” Jonathan Turley.org. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
Available @ https://jonathanturley.org/2014/10/30/meet-rana-kauffeldi-the-new-frog-species-named-after-the-man-who-first-found-it-80-years-ago/

Sunday, October 24, 2010

New Jersey Chorus Frogs: Banded, Clicking, Pale-Lipped, Striped Bodies

Summary: New Jersey chorus frogs abide in hardwood, mixed hardwood-pine forests in eastern North America, from New York through the tri-state Delmarva Peninsula.

image of New Jersey chorus frog (Pseudacris kalmi) by Suzanne L. Collins; Virginia DWR, "New Jersey Chorus Frog": Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources @VirginiaDWR, via Twitter March 27, 2015

New Jersey chorus frogs abide in hardwood, mixed hardwood-pine forests in eastern North America, in the northeastern and southeastern two-thirds of New Jersey and tri-state Delmarva Peninsula in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

Extreme southeast Pennsylvania along the northeastern New Jersey border bears New Jersey chorus frog-friendly hardwood and mixed forests with area shallow-water breeding sites and shrub understories. The allied member of the Hylidae (from Greek ύλη, “forest” via Latin Hylas and -ειδής, “-like” via Latin -idae) tree-frog family carries the name Pseudacris kalmi. Francis Harper (Nov. 17, 1886-Nov. 17, 1972) taxonomically dedicated Pseudacris kalmi (from Greek ψευδής, “false” and ἀκρίς “locust”) to Pehr Kalm (March 6, 1716-Nov. 16, 1779).

The Anura (from Greek ἀν-, “not” and οὐρά, “tail” via ανοὐρά) amphibian order member previously entertained subspecies status to upper-coastal plain- and piedmont-existing upland chorus frogs.

New Jersey chorus frog life cycles favor breeding-friendly, fishless, semi-permanent and temporary bogs, ditches, ephemeral and vernal pools, ponds and streams where grassy, sedgy clumps flourish.

January or February through March or April annually guard physically and sexually mature females and males in respective 3- to 4-night and 2- to 3-week groups. Forty-five-millimeter (1.77-inch) diameter masses hold 0.6- to 0.8-millimeter (0.024- to 0.032-inch) diameter ōva (from Latin ōvum, “egg”) cells and 1.2- to 2.0-millimeter (0.057- to 0.079-inch) eggs. One- and 1-plus-year-old, physically and sexually mature females install their 30 to 100 eggs in 8- to 143-egg intervals on the shallow-water stems of aquatic plants.

Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis fungus, fertilizer runoff, globally warmed climate change, nonnative species, toxic pesticides, trematode-induced deformities and ultraviolet radiation jeopardize North American New Jersey chorus frog habitats.

New Jersey chorus frogs know perhaps 2- to 5-year life cycles that knit together 1- to 2-day-long egg and 21- to 28- or 75-day-long tadpole stages.

Gill-breathing, herbivorous (from Latin herba, “grass” and vorō, “I devour”) tadpoles no longer look fish-like when 12- to 14-millimeter (0.47- to 0.55-inch) lengths launch froglet metamorphoses. Predatory aquatic and woodland insects, crayfish, foxes, herons, mink, raccoons, shrews, shrikes, skunks, snakes, spiders and turtles menace New Jersey chorus frogs’ egg, tadpole, frog moments. Ants, beetles, caddisflies, craneflies, crickets, flies, grasshoppers, mites, mosquitoes, moths, pillbugs, sowbugs, spiders, springtails, stinkbugs, termites, wasps and worms nourish adults, not algae-, debris-, diatom-nurtured tadpoles.

North American New Jersey chorus frog habitats offer north-south season-coldest temperatures, Staten Island, New York, through Delmarva, at minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23.3 degrees Celsius).

Boggy, bushy, grassy, herbaceous, marshy, shrubby, swampy, weedy, woody wetlands, flooded pastures, grassy floodplains and seasonal ditches, ponds, pools and streams promote New Jersey chorus frogs.

Lang Elliott, Carl Gerhardt and Carlos Davidson quantify 0.75- to 1.25-inch (1.91- to 3.18-centimeter) snout-vent (excrementary opening) lengths in The Frogs and Toads of North America. Adults reveal light-lined upper lips, one dark band through each side's snout, gold-rimmed dark eye and hind-limb and three back-centered dull, irregular or thick, well-defined stripes. Advertisement calls sound like high-inflected, rising-pitched crrreeeeek clicks with pulse trill rates swifter than non-overlapping, similar, slower boreal, cajun, midland, southern and upland chorus frog advertisements.

Cream-bellied brown-gray-green bodies with banded sides, lined lips and striped backs trill throughout Delmarva's and New Jersey's grass-teeming, pine-thronged North American New Jersey chorus frog habitats.

>range map for New Jersey chorus frog (Pseudacris kalmi): National Amphibian Atlas, Public Domain, via U.S. Geological Survey Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

image of New Jersey chorus frog (Pseudacris kalmi) by Suzanne L. Collins; Virginia DWR, "New Jersey Chorus Frog," @ https://dwr.virginia.gov/wildlife/information/new-jersey-chorus-frog/: Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources @VirginiaDWR, via Twitter March 27, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/VirginiaDWR/status/581430806964518912

range map for New Jersey chorus frog (Pseudacris kalmi): National Amphibian Atlas, Public Domain, via U.S. Geological Survey Patuxent Wildlife Research Center @ https://www.pwrc.usgs.gov:8080/mapserver/naa/

For further information:

Beane, Jeffrey C.; Alvin L. Braswell; Joseph C. Mitchell; William M. Palmer; and Julian R. Harrison III. 2010. "New Jersey Chorus Frog Pseudacris kalmi." Page 139. In: Amphibians and Reptiles of the Carolinas and Virginia. With contributions by Bernard S. Martof and Joseph R. Bailey. Second Edition, Revised and Updated. Chapel Hill NC: The University of North Carolina.

Curtis, Brandon; Bob Hamilton; Don Becker; Brandon Ruhe; and Stephen Staedtler. "New Jersey Chorus Frog." Pa Herps > Pennsylvania Herp Identification Online Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of PA > Frogs & Toads of Pennsylvania.
Available @ https://www.paherps.com/herps/frogs-toads/new_jersey_chorus_frog/

Davenport, L.J. 24 August 2009. "Roland Harper." Encyclopedia of Alabama > Science and Technology > Scientists. Last updated April 26, 2013.
Available @ http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2413

Davenport, Michael J. 2016. "New Jersey Chorus Frog Pseudacris kalmi." Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey > Our Species > Field Guide > New Jersey Endangered and Threatened Species Field Guide.
Available @ http://www.conservewildlifenj.org/species/fieldguide/view/Pseudacris%20kalmi/

Duellman, William E., Ph.D. 2003. "Chorus frog Pseudacris triseriata." Pages 238-239. In: Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd edition. Volume 6, Amphibians, edited by Michael Hutchins, William E. Duellman and Neil Schlager. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group.

Elliott, Lang; Carl Gerhardt; and Carlos Davidson. 2009. "New Jersey Chorus Frog." Pages 90-91. In: The Frogs and Toads of North America: A Comprehensive Guide to Their Identification, Behavior and Calls. Boston MA; New York NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Frost, Darrel. "Pseudacris kalmi Harper, 1955." American Museum of Natural History > Our Research > Vertebrate Zoology > Herpetology > Amphibians Species of the World Database.
Available @ http://research.amnh.org/vz/herpetology/amphibia/index.php//Amphibia/Anura/Hylidae/Acridinae/Pseudacris/Pseudacris-kalmi

Harper, Francis. 1939. "A New Chorus Frog (Pseudacris) From the Eastern United States." Natural History Miscellanea, no. 150 (Nov. 22, 1955): 1-6. Chicago IL: The Chicago Academy of Sciences.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/MiscellaneaN150

IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group. 2022. "New Jersey Chorus Frog: Pseudacris kalmi." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 3.1. p. e..T136134A119000677. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2022-1.RLTS.T136134A119000677.en. 136134.
Available @ https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/136134/119000677

Menjivar, Stephanie. 20 March 2021. "Pseudacris kalmi (Harper, 1955)." AmphibiaWeb > Browse by Taxa Lists > Browse Alphabetically > Anura (Frogs) > Anura: Pse-Re > Rana sylvatica. Edited by Ann T. Chang 20 March 2021. Berkeley CA: University of California, Berkeley.
Available @ https://amphibiaweb.org/species/6959

"New Jersey Chorus Frog." US Fish & Wildlife Service > Species > Find a Species > Search by scientific/common name.
Available @ https://www.fws.gov/species/new-jersey-chorus-frog-pseudacris-kalmi

"New Jersey Chorus Frog." Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources > Wildlife & Habitat > Wildlife Information > Frogs & Toads. Last updated 23 March 2021.
Available @ https://dwr.virginia.gov/wildlife/information/new-jersey-chorus-frog/

"New Jersey Chorus Frog (Pseudacris kalmi)." Maryland Department of Natural Resources > Maryland Plants and Wildlife > Wildlife > Maryland Wildlife > Maryland's Wildlife Species > Reptiles and Amphibians of Maryland > Discover Maryland's Herps > Frogs > Maryland's Frogs and Toads (Order Anura) > Frogs and Toads > Frog and Toad Anatomy > Treefrogs (Family Hylidae) > New Jersey Chorus Frog (Pseudacris kalmi) > Field Guid to Maryland's Frogs and Toads (Ordere Anura).
Available @ https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/Pages/plants_wildlife/herps/Anura.aspx?FrogToadName=New+Jersey+Chorus+Frog

"New Jersey Chorus Frog (Pseudacris triseriata kalmi)." Fact Sheet adapted from Felbaum, Mitchell, et al. 1995. Endangered and Threatened Species of Pennsylvania. Harrisburg PA: Wild Resource Conservation Fund. Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program.
Available @ https://www.naturalheritage.state.pa.us/factsheets/10854.pdf

"New Jersey Chorus Frog Pseudacris kalmi." Virginia Herpetological Society > Animals > Frogs & Toads > Frogs & Toads of Virginia.
Available @ https://www.virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com/amphibians/frogsandtoads/new-jersey-chorus-frog/new_jersey_chorus_frog.php

Norment, Christopher J. March 2000. "Francis Harper (1886-1972)." Arctic, vol. 53, no. 1 (March 2000): 72-75.
Available @ http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic53-1-72.pdf

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Mountain Chorus Frogs: Dark-Masked Eyes and Brown-Gray-Olive Bodies

Summary: Mountain chorus frogs are in forested, hilly, shallow-watered habitats in the Appalachian-wooded foothills and mountains of 10 southeastern states.

mountain chorus frog (Pseudacris brachyphona): Brad Michael "Bones" Glorioso/USGS National Wetlands Research Center, Public Domain, via USGS Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI)

Mountain chorus frogs are in forested, hilly, shallow-watered habitats in the Appalachian-wooded southeastern Unitedstatesian foothills and mountains in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

Mountain chorus frogs bear their common name for braving and breeding in high, hilly habitats that bring in plains- and piedmont-loving, somewhat overlapping upland chorus frogs. The scientific, species name Pseudacris brachyphona (from Greek ψευδής [“false”], ἀκρίς [“locust”], βραχύς [“brief”] and φωνή [“sound”]) confirms Hylidae tree-frog family and Anura amphibian order memberships. Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840-April 12, 1897) in 1889 described the hylid (from Greek ύλη, “forest” via Latin Hylas and -ειδής, “-like” via Latin -idae).

The anuran (from Greek ἀν-, “not” and οὐρά, “tail” via ανοὐρά) expects forested hills with shallow temporary-flooded fields, roadside ditches and small ponds, pools or streams.

February through April function as breeding season months in mountain chorus frog life cycles that fit with other early spring-breeding hylids such as similar-looking spring peepers.

Mountain chorus frogs go around on long legs with round, small toe tips and small, sticky toe pads more like leaping wood frogs than walking treefrogs. They head for even higher altitudes above sea level than upland chorus frogs, whose overlapping distribution ranges have rare habitat niches in Appalachian foothills and mountains. The male advertisement call is almost identical to the coastal plain, lower altitude-inhabiting, non-overlapping Brimley's chorus frog's and squirrel treefrog's respective rrrack-rrrack-rrrack-rrrack-rrrack and rrraak trilled voices.

Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis fungal disease; fertilizer runoff; global-warmed, ultraviolet-radiated climate change; nonnative species; toxic pesticides; and trematode fluke-induced deformities jeopardize mountain chorus frogs in North American habitats.

Mountain chorus frogs know the nocturnal lifestyles of more secretive, warier upland chorus frogs even as they sometime keep daylight hours along hoppable, moist woodland trails.

One-, one-plus-year old physically and sexually mature female mountain chorus frogs leave 400 eggs in 10- to 50-egg groups on shallow-water, stream-edge ditch, pond, pool vegetation. Gill-breathing, herbivorous (from Latin herba, “grass” and vorō, “I devour”), little fish-like, swimming mountain chorus tadpoles moved out of their eggs four to five days later. Tadpoles need algae, organic debris, plant tissue and suspended matter even as beetles, caterpillars, crickets, flies, mosquitoes, moths, pillbugs, sowbugs, spiders, stinkbugs and worms nourish adults.

North American mountain chorus frog habitats offer season-coldest temperatures, northward to southward, from minus 15 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 26 to minus 9.4 degrees Celsius).

Mountain chorus tadpoles present average, mature 30-millimeter (1.2-inch) body lengths before they pass into immature phases as mountain chorus froglets with average 8-millimeter (0.3-inch) body lengths.

Lang Elliott, Carl Gerhardt and Carlos Davidson quantify 1- to 1.5-inch (2.54- to 3.81-centimeter) snout-vent (excrementary opening) lengths in The Frogs and Toads of North America. Adult mountain chorus frogs reveal brown, gray-brown-olive bodies with dark-masked, gold-rimmed eyes; white-banded, white-lined upper lips; spring peeper-like backs; yellow leg undersides; and small toe pads. Two advertisement calls per second with upslurred endings sound like harsh, raspy rrrack-rrrack-rrrack-rrrack-rrrack trills similarizing non-overlapping Brimley's chorus frog rrrack-rrrrack-rrrack-rrrack-rrrack and overlapping squirrel treefrog rrraak-rrraak-rrraak-rrraak-rrraak trills.

North American habitats tender Appalachian-thronging, brown-gray-olive-bodied, trill-slurring, white upper-lipped mountain chorus frogs with dark-masked eyes; plain, spring peeper-like broken-striped or marked backs; and yellow under-sided legs.

range map for mountain chorus frog (Pseudacris brachyphona): National Amphibian Atlas, Public Domain, via U.S. Geological Survey Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

mountain chorus frog (Pseudacris brachyphona); Franklin County, south central Tennessee: Brad Michael "Bones" Glorioso/USGS National Wetlands Research Center, Public Domain, via USGS Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI) @ https://armi.usgs.gov/gallery/result.php?search=Pseudacris+brachyphona

range map for mountain chorus frog (Pseudacris brachyphona): National Amphibian Atlas, Public Domain, via U.S. Geological Survey Patuxent Wildlife Research Center @ https://www.pwrc.usgs.gov:8080/mapserver/naa/

For further information:

Beane, Jeffrey C.; Alvin L. Braswell; Joseph C. Mitchell; William M. Palmer; and Julian R. Harrison III. 2010. "Mountain Chorus Frog Pseudacris brachyphona." Page 135. In: Amphibians and Reptiles of the Carolinas and Virginia. With contributions by Bernard S. Martof and Joseph R. Bailey. Second Edition, Revised and Updated. Chapel Hill NC: The University of North Carolina.

Cope, E.D. (Edward Drinker). 1889. "C. feriarum brachyphonus." The Batrachia of North America. Bulletin of the United States National Museum, no. 34: 341. Washington DC: Government Printing Office.
Available @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/32367988

Elliott, Lang; Gerhardt, Carl; and Davidson, Carlos. 2009. "Mountain Chorus Frog." Pages 102-103. In: The Frogs and Toads of North America: A Comprehensive Guide to Their Identification, Behavior and Calls. Boston MA; New York NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Frost, Darrel. "Pseudacris brachyphona (Cope, 1889)." American Museum of Natural History > Our Research > Vertebrate Zoology > Herpetology > Amphibians Species of the World Database.
Available @ http://research.amnh.org/vz/herpetology/amphibia/index.php//Amphibia/Anura/Hylidae/Acridinae/Pseudacris/Pseudacris-brachyphona

Friday, October 22, 2010

North American Eastern Cricket Frog Habitats Are Grassy, Open, Shallow

Summary: North American eastern cricket frog habitats are grassy, open, shallow waters from South Dakota south through Mexico and east to New York through Florida.

northern cricket frog subspecies eastern cricket frog (Acris crepitans crepitans); "A Northern Cricket Frog scouts lunch in the marsh at Mason Neck;" Mason Neck State Park, Fairfax County, Northern Virginia; Saturday, July 12, 2014: Virginia State Parks (vastateparksstaff), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

North American eastern cricket frog habitats are grassy, open, shallow waters from South Dakota southward through Texas and into Mexico and eastward from Atlantic coastal New York through Florida and everywhere between.

North American eastern cricket frogs bear their common name as the eastern-borne, first-named, nominate subspecies Acris crepitans crepitans to the northern cricket frog species Acris crepitans. First-named subspecies and the second-named, Acris crepitans paludicola (from Greek ἀκρίς, [locust] and Latin crepitāns [“rattling”], palūs [“swamp”] and -cola [“inhabitant”]), communicate compactness, sounds and whereabouts. Taxonomic designations of the northern species and its eastern subspecies derive from the scientific descriptions of Spencer Fullerton Baird (Feb. 3, 1823-Aug. 19, 1887) in 1854.

William Leslie Burger (1925-1988), Hobart Muir Smith (Sep. 26, 1912-March 4, 2013) and Philip Wayne Smith (Dec. 2, 1921-Oct. 11, 1986) in 1949 examined paludicola subspecies.

Eastern cricket frogs favor South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas and northeasternmost Mexico eastward even as coastal subspecies favor northeasternmost Texas and southwesternmost Louisiana.

Four-month to 5-year life cycles guard as breeding-season months April through August in grass-edged ditches, marshes and ponds in one northeasternmost Mexican province and 31 states. The Hylidae (from Greek ύλη, “forest” via Latin Hylas and -ειδής, “-like” via Latin -idae) tree-frog family member, without any toe pads, hones 30-foot (9.14-meter) jumps. One- to one-plus-year-old physically and sexually mature females install their 400-egg clutches singly or in 2- to 7-egg intervals on shallow-water floors or shallow-water plant stems.

Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis fungus, fertilizer runoff, globally warmed climate change, nonnative species, toxic pesticides, trematode fluke-induced deformities and ultraviolet radiation jeopardize North American eastern cricket frog habitats.

The Anura (from Greek ἀν-, “not” and οὐρά, “tail” via ανοὐρά) short-bodied, tail-less amphibian order member knows 3- to 4-day hatching times for their spring-summer egg-laying.

North American eastern cricket frogs live as black tail-tipped, fish-like, gill-breathing, herbivorous (from Latin herba, “grass” and vorō, “I devour”) tadpoles for 5 to 7 weeks. They manifest maximum 0.6-inch- (14-millimeter-) long bodies when they metamorphose from swimming tadpoles to leaping, lung-breathing carnivores (from Latin carō, “flesh, meat” and vorō, “I devour”). Tadpoles need algae, organic debris, plant tissue and suspended matter even as such 0.5- to 1.5-inch- (13- to 38-millimeter-) long aquatic insects as mosquitoes nourish adults.

North American eastern cricket frog habitats offer season's coldest temperatures, north to southward, from minus 45 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.8 to 4.4 degrees Celsius).

Black basses (Micropterus spp), bullfrogs (Lithobates/Rana catesbeianus), grackles (Cassidix mexicanus), kestrels (Falco sparverius), garter (Thamnophis sirtalis) and water (Nerodia paucimaculata, Nerodia sipedon) snakes predatorize cricket frogs.

Lang Elliott, Carl Gerhardt and Carlos Davidson quantify 0.625- to 1.625-inch (1.5875- to 4.1275-centimeter) snout-vent (excrementary opening) lengths in The Frogs and Toads of North America. Brown-, gray-, green-, wart-bodied adults reveal one dark triangle between dark eyes; green-, orange-, red-, yellow-striped backs; narrow-, upper-banded thighs with lengthwise-, ragged-, striped rear edges. Advertisement calls sound like striking two small stones into serial gik-gik-gik-gik clicks that speed up and slow down, unlike the steady giik of southern cricket frogs.

North American eastern cricket frog habitats team cricket-like leaps and stone-striking-like clicks with triangle-marked faces; brown-gray-green, warty bodies; large-spotted sides; striped backs and banded, striped thighs.

Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012, range map of geographic distribution of Northern Cricket Frog Acris crepitans, with range data from Geoffrey Hammerson, Georgina Santos-Barrera, Don Church 2004. Acris crepitans. In: IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.2. www.iucnredlist.org. Downloaded on 11 November 2012, @ https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/76508845/53951510: IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, species assessors and the authors of the spatial data, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Aardema, J.; S. Beam; J. Boner; J. Bussone; C. Ewart; I. Kaplan; K. Kiefer; S. Lindsay; E. Merrill; W. Moretz; J. Roberts; E. Rockwell; M. Reott; J. Willson; A. Pickens; W. Guthrie; A. Young; Y. Kornilev; W. Anderson; G. Connette; E. Eskew; E. Teague; M. Thomas; and A. Tutterow. "Cricket Frog." Herps of NC > Amphibians and Reptiles of North Carolina > Turtles.
Available @ https://herpsofnc.org/cricket-frog/#:~:text=Habitats%20and%20Habits%3A%20Northern%20cricket,banks%20of%20streams%20and%20rivers.

"Acris crepitans Northern cricket frog." Page 459. In: David Burnie and Don E. Wilson. (Eds.) Smithsonian Animal: The Definitive Visual Guide. Revised and Updated. New York NY: DK Publishing, 2011.

"AnAge entry for Acris crepitans." Human Ageing Genomic Resources > HAGR > Genomics > AnAge: The Animal Ageing and Longevity Database.
Available @ https://genomics.senescence.info/species/entry.php?species=Acris_crepitans

Baird, Spencer F. 1854. "Descriptions of New Genera and Species of North American frogs: 1. Acris crepitans, Baird." Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. VII 1854, 1855: 59. Philadelphia PA: Printed for The Academy by Merrihew and Thompson, 1856.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/1694172
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/proceedingsofaca07acad#page/59/mode/1up

Beane, Jeffrey C.; Alvin L. Braswell; Joseph C. Mitchell; William M. Palmer; and Julian R. Harrison III. 2010. "Northern Cricket Frog Acris crepitans." Page 125. In: Amphibians and Reptiles of the Carolinas and Virginia. With contributions by Bernard S. Martof and Joseph R. Bailey. Second Edition, Revised and Updated. Chapel Hill NC: The University of North Carolina.

Britton, David. 2011. COSEWIC Assessment and Update Status Report on the Northern Cricket Frog Acris crepitans in Canada. Ottawa, Canada: Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada.
Available @ https://sararegistry.gc.ca/virtual_sara/files/cosewic/Northern%20Cricket%20Frog_2001_e.pdf

Burger, W.L.; P.W. Smith; and H.M. Smith. 1949. "Notable Records of Reptiles and Amphibians in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas." Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science, vol. XXIV: 130-134. Nashville TN: Tennessee Academy of Science, 1949.

Chapman, S. 2000. "Eastern Cricket Frog." Chapman, S. 2000. "Northern Cricket Frog Acris crepitans" (On-line). Bio Kids: Kids' Inquiry of Diverse Species > Critter Catalog > Amphibians > frogs, salamanders, and caecilians > true frogs. Interagency Education Research Initiative partnership: University of Michigan School of Education, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology and Detroit Public Schools.
Available @ http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Acris_crepitans/#:~:text=crepitans%20is%20a%20small%20(0.75,The%20skin%20is%20bumpy.

"Cricket Frogs (Northern and Southern)." NC Wildlife Resources Commission > Learning > Species > Amphibians.
Available @ https://www.ncwildlife.org/Learning/Species/Amphibians/Cricket-Frog-Northern-and-Southern

Davenport, Michael J. 2016. "Northern Cricket Frog Acris crepitans." Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey > Our Species > Field Guide > New Jersey Endangered and Threatened Species Field Guide.
Available @ http://www.conservewildlifenj.org/species/fieldguide/view/Acris%20crepitas/

Dickerson, Mary C. 1906. "The Cricket Frog Acris gryllus Le Conte." The Frog Book; North American Toads and Frogs With a Study of the Habits and Life Histories of Those of the Northeastern States: 153-156; Color Plate XIV. New York NY: Doubleday, Page & Company.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/1184189
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/frogbooknorthame01dick/page/153/mode/1up?view=theater

Duellman, William E., PhD. 2003. "Anura (Frogs and toads)." Pages 261-268. In: Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd edition. Volume 6, Amphibians, edited by Michael Hutchins, William E. Duellman and Neil Schlager. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group.

Duellman, William E., Ph.D. 2003. "Northern cricket frog Acris crepitans." Page 234. In: Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd edition. Volume 6, Amphibians, edited by Michael Hutchins, William E. Duellman and Neil Schlager. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group.

Eastern Cricket Frog." Maryland Biodiversity Project > Phylum Chordata > Class Amhibia > Order Anura > Family Hylidae > Genus Acris.
Available @

"Eastern Cricket Frog." MS Herps > Reptiles and Amphibians of Mississippi > Frogs > Order Anura > Hylidae ((Treefrogs and Allies) > Eastern Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans).
Available @ https://msherps.com/frogs/eastern-cricket-frog/

"Eastern Cricket Frog." Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources > Wildlife & Habitat > Wildlife Information > Frogs & Toads. Last updated 27 April 2022.
Available @ https://dwr.virginia.gov/wildlife/information/eastern-cricket-frog/#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20smallest%20frogs,concealed%20surface%20of%20the%20thigh.

"Eastern Cricket Frog Acris crepitans." Leaps Environmental Consulting > Frog & Toad ID Pages > Tennessee Frog & Toad ID Pages > Access by Name > The Frogs & Toads of Tennessee: Genus Acris: Acris crepitans - Eastern Cricket Frog.
Available @ https://www.leaps.ms/acris_crepitans.htm

"Eastern Cricket Frog Acris crepitans." Virginia Herpetological Society > Animals > Frogs & Toads > Frogs & Toads of Virginia.
Available @ https://www.virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com/amphibians/frogsandtoads/eastern-cricket-frog/eastern_cricket_frog.php

Elliott, Lang; Carl Gerhardt; and Carlos Davidson. 2009. "Northern Cricket Frog." Pages 114-117. In: The Frogs and Toads of North America: A Comprehensive Guide to Their Identification, Behavior and Calls. Boston MA; New York NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Felling, Kyle 27 May 2020. KBIA > Programs > Programs Z-Z > Discover Nature (Missouri Department of Conservation > Arts and Culture.
Available @ https://www.kbia.org/arts-and-culture/2020-05-27/discover-nature-northern-cricket-frog

"Founders of the Virginia Herptological Society." Virginia Herpetological Society > Publications > Founding Members > History of Herpetology in Virginia.
Available @ https://www.virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com/founders/vhsfoundingmembers.html

Frost, Darrel. "Acris crepitans Baird, 1854." American Museum of Natural History > Our Research > Vertebrate Zoology > Herpetology > Amphibians Species of the World Database.
Available @ https://amphibiansoftheworld.amnh.org/Amphibia/Anura/Hylidae/Hylinae/Acris/Acris-crepitans

Glorioso, Brad M. "Eastern Cricket Frog." Brad Glorioso's Personal Website > Amphibians and Reptiles of Louisiana > Class Amphibia > Order Anura (Frogs and Toads) > Order Anura > Family Hylidae > Acris crerpitans - Eastern Cricket Frog.
Available @ http://www.louisianaherps.com/delta-of-mississippi/northern-cricket-frog.html

Greene, Aaliyah. "Northern Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans)." Revised by J.D. Willson. University of Georgia > Savannah River Ecology Laboratory > Herp Home > Herpetology at SREL > Reptiles and Amphibians of South Carolina and Georgia > Frogs and Toads of South Carolina and Georgia > Family Hylidae (Tree Frogs).
Available @ https://srelherp.uga.edu/anurans/acrcre.htm

Hamilton, Bob; Bill Peterman; Kyle Loucks; Dave Emma; Chris Harrison; Doug Warer; and Don Becker. "Eastern Cricket Frog." Pa Herps > Pennsylvania Herp Identification Online Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of PA > Frogs & Toads of Pennsylvania.
Available @ https://www.paherps.com/herps/frogs-toads/eastern_cricket_frog/

Hammerson, G. 21 September 2004. "Acris crepitans Eastern Cricket Frog." NatureServe Explorer > Search > Search for species and ecosystems. Page Last Published 9/30/2022.
Available @ https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.828419/Acris_crepitans

Hammerson, Geoffrey; Georgina Santos-Barrera; and Don Church. 2004. "Lithobates sylvaticus." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2004: e.T55286A11272584. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2004.RLTS.T55286A11272584.en.
Available @ https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/55286/11272584

Harper, Francis. 19 May 1947. "A New Cricket Frog (Acris) From the Middle Western States: Acris gryllus blanchardi, subsp. nov. Western Cricket Frog; Blanchard's Cricket Frog." Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, vol. 60: 39-40. Washington DC: Printed for The Society by Monumental Printing Co., Baltimore MD, 1947.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34498271
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/proceedings6061194748biol#page/39/mode/1up

Iwaki, Michelle. 29 April 2012. "Acris crepitans (Baird, 1854)." AmphibiaWeb > Browse by Taxa Lists > Browse Alphabetically > Anura (Frogs) > Anura: A-Ate > Acris crepitans. Edited by Tate Tunstall and Michelle S. Koo. Berkeley CA: University of California, Berkeley.
Available @ https://amphibiaweb.org/species/670

Johnson, Dr. Steve A. 2007. "Northern Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans)." University of Florida Department of Wildlife Ecology & Conservation > UF Wildlife - Johnson Lab > Florida's Frogs & Toads > Cricket Frogs (Family Hylidae).
Available @ https://ufwildlife.ifas.ufl.edu/frogs/northerncricketfrog.shtml

"Northern Cricket Frog." Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources > Outdoor Alabama > Wildlife > Amphibians > Froggs and Toads in Alabama.
Available @ https://www.outdooralabama.com/frogs-and-toads-alabama/northern-cricket-frog

"Northern Cricket Frog." Missouri Department of Conservation > Discover Nature > Field Guide > Search the Field Guide > Field Guide A-Z > Search by name > Reptiles and Amphibians > Page 2.
Available @ https://education.mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/northern-cricket-frog

"Northern Cricket Frog." New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife.
Available @ https://www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/ensp/pdf/species/no_cricket_frog.pdf

"Northern Cricket Frog." Excerpt from Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of New Jersey. Trenton NJ: State of New Jersey, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife. Dated 2002.
Available @ https://www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/ensp/pdf/species/no_cricket_frog.pdf

"Northern Cricket Frog." US Fish & Wildlife Service > Species > Find a Species > Search by scientific/common name.
Available @ https://www.fws.gov/species/northern-cricket-frog-acris-crepitans

"Northern Cricket Frog." Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources > Wildlife & Habitat > Wildlife Information > Frogs & Toads. Last updated 27 April 2022.
Available @ https://dwr.virginia.gov/wildlife/information/northern-cricket-frog/

"Northern Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans)." Herpedia A Guide to the Reptiles & Amphibians of the United States > Reptiles of the United States > Frogs & Toads > Hylidae (Treefrogs).
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"Northern cricket frog Acris crepitans." Page 234. In: Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd edition. Volume 6, Amphibians, edited by Michael Hutchins, William E. Duellman and Neil Schlager. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2003.

"Northern cricket frog Acris crepitans." Jungle Dragon > Animals > Vertebrates > Amphibians > Frogs > Tree Frogs and Allies > Acris.
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"Northern Cricket Frog Acris crepitans." Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency > Wildlife/Biodiversity > Amphibians > Frogs/Toads of Tennessee > Frogs and Toads in Tennessee > Northern Cricket Frog.
Available @ https://www.tn.gov/twra/wildlife/amphibians/frogs-and-toads/norther-cricket-frog.html

"Northern Cricket Frog Acris crepitans Baird, 1854." New York Natural Heritage Program > Online Conservation Guide for Acris crepitans.
Available @ https://guides.nynhp.org/northern-cricket-frog/

"Northern Cricket Frog Acris crepitans crepitans." University of Florida > Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences > Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation > Florida Wildlife Extension > Wildlife Information > Frogs & Toads of Florida > Northern Cricket Frog.
Available @ https://wec.ifas.ufl.edu/extension/wildlife_info/frogstoads/acris_crepitans_crepitans.php

"Northern cricket frog facts for kids." Kiddle Encyclopedia > Kids Encyclopedia Facts. Page last modified 23 September 2022.
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Northern Prairie Biological Resource Center. 1997. "Northern Cricket Frog, Acris crepitans." Checklist of Amphibian Species and Identification Guide. An Online Guide for the Identification of Amphibians in North America north of Mexico. North American Reporting Center for Amphibian Malformations. Jamestown ND: Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center Home Page.
Available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine @ https://web.archive.org/web/20060428131753/http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/narcam/idguide/crepitan.htm

"Not Crickets, But Cricket Frogs. Hilton Pond Center > Table of Contents > This Week at Hilton Pond > Installment #263.
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Petranka, Jim; Steve Hall; and Tom Howard; with contributions from Harry LeGrand. "Acris crepitans - Eastern Cricket Frog." Amphibians of North Carolina [Internet]> Scientific Name Common Name Family Find. Raleigh NC: North Carolina Biodiversity Project and North Carolina State Parks.
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Somma, L.A. 26 October 2009. "Acris crepitans Baird, 1854." U.S. Geological Survey > NAS - Nonindigeous Aquatic Species > Database & Queries > NAS Database > Database Search > All of our species profiles > Amphibians-Frogs Hylidae Acris crepitans. Gainesville FL.
Available @ https://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?SpeciesID=52

Suter, Katie. 2022. "Northern Cricket Frog Acris crepitans" (On-line). Animal Diversity Web. Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.
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Walley, Harlan D. 1990. "A Tribute to Philip W. Smith." Transactions of the Illinois State Academy of Science, vol. 83, nos. 1-2: 116-123. Springfield IL: Illinois State Academy of Science, 1990.
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Available via ISAS (Illinois State Academy of Science) @ http://ilacadofsci.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/083-13-print.pdf

Thursday, October 21, 2010

North American Carpenter Frog Habitats Are Plant-Filled, Quiet Waters

Summary: North American carpenter frog habitats are plant-filled, quiet waters in marshes, lakes, ponds, pools, rivers, streams and swamps, Maryland to Florida.

carpenter frog (Rana virgatipes), a Virginia State species of concern; Mattaponi Wildlife Management Area, Caroline County, Northern Virginia; Friday, June 29, 2012; Kelly Geer/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters (USFWS Headquarters), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

North American carpenter frog habitats are plant-filled, quiet waters in marshes, lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, swamps and temporary pools, Maryland to New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

Carpenter frogs bear their common name for bringing up sound pictures of two carpenters banging nails into boards with hammers betraying a slight lack of unison. They carry the scientific names Lithobates virgatipes (from Greek λίθος, “stone” and βάτης, “I tread” and Latin virgatipes, “striped-footed”) and Rana virgatipes (from Latin rāna, “frog”). Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840-April 12, 1897) in 1891 scientifically described the Anura (from Latin an-, “not” and Greek - οὐρά, “tail”) amphibian order member.

The Cope scientific exploration equates carpenter frog environments with the Nymphaea waterlily, Sphagnum moss and Utricularia bladderwort genera and with the Pinus palustris longleaf pine species.

Cranberry, cypress and tupelo species likewise furnish 6-year lifespans, from hatchlings to juveniles, to mature two-year-olds, edible organic debris; plant tissue; small crustaceans, invertebrates and mollusks.

Acid, black gum, blackwater, bottomland and cypress-dome swamps; acidic, beaver and cypress ponds; bays; coastal plains; and cranberry-bog ditches get egg, hatchling, juvenile and mature habitants. Borrow-pit, canal, constructed-pond, drainage-ditch and impoundment artificial wetlands house the Ranidae (from Latin rāna, “frog” and from Greek -ειδής, “-like” via Latin -idæ) true-frog family member. Carpenter frogs inhabit flooded cranberry bogs and seasonal woodland pools; freshwater marshes; grass-like vegetative stands; interdunal cypress swales; low-lying, peat-soil, upland, wooded pocosin and tupelo swamps.

Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis fungal disease, fertilizer runoff, globally warmed climate change, nonnative species, toxic pesticides, trematode fluke-induced deformities and ultraviolet radiation jeopardize North American carpenter frog habitats.

Plant-filled, quiet waters kindle oxbow lakes and ponds; peaty, pine-savanna and sphagnum bogs; pine-barren and pine-savannah ponds; and sandhill-ridge wetlands as North American carpenter frog habitats.

Breeding-season, non-breeding and permanent 0.5- to 6.5-meter (1.64- to 21.32-foot) diameter territories even around sluggish swampland creeks, rivers and streams and swampy plains lodge mature males. April through August mature females maneuver flattened or globular, 75- to 100-millimeter (2.95- to 3.94-inch) diameter masses of 3.8- to 6.9-millimeter (0.15- to 0.27-inch) diameter eggs. Black-topped, blue-tinged, white-bottomed eggs, each one in a 3.8- to 6.9-millimeter (0.15- to 0.37-inch) jelly envelope, need underwater vegetation niched at maximum 30-plus-centimeter (11.81-inch) subsurface depths.

North American carpenter frog habitats offer season's coldest temperatures, north to southward, from minus 5 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 20.55 to minus 3.9 degrees Celsius).

Week-long eggs precipitate year-long tadpoles that produce 23- to 31-millimeter- (0.9- to 1.2-inch-) long froglets that permanentize as 42- to 67-millimeter- (1.5- to 2.5-inch-) long frogs.

Carpenter frogs quarter dark spots between, and brown, olive or red-brown bodies under, one brown-yellow, jaw-to-groin stripe per side and one brown-yellow, eye-to-hind-leg stripe per upper-side. The belly region of carpenter frog undersides and thigh rears respectively reveal black-mottled whiteness and alternating dark and light stripes even as upper lips remain light-lined. Carpenter frogs shelter no dorsolateral (from Latin dorsum [“back”], latus [“flank, side”] and intensification- and relationship-creating adjectival suffix -ālis [“-al”] via laterālis) folds or longest-toe webbing.

North American carpenter frog habitats transmit the asynchronous, carpenter-like, doubled, nail-driving, rapping, sharp notes c-tuck, c-tuck, c-tuck, c-tuck of advertisement calls from carpenter frogs’ vocal sacs.

range map for carpenter frog (Rana virgatipes; Lithobates virgatipes): National Amphibian Atlas, Public Domain, via U.S. Geological Survey Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

range map for carpenter frog (Rana virgatipes; Lithobates virgatipes): National Amphibian Atlas, Public Domain, via U.S. Geological Survey Patuxent Wildlife Research Center @ https://www.pwrc.usgs.gov:8080/mapserver/naa/

For further information:

"AnAge entry for Lithobates virgatipes." Human Ageing Genomic Resources > HAGR > Genomics > AnAge: The Animal Ageing and Longevity Database.
Available @ https://genomics.senescence.info/species/entry.php?species=Lithobates_virgatipes

Baker, Christina. "Carpenter Frog (Rana [Lithobates] virgatipes)." Revised by J.D. Willson. University of Georgia > Savannah River Ecology Laboratory > Herp Home > Herpetology at SREL > Reptiles and Amphibians of South Carolina and Georgia > Frogs and Toads of South Carolina and Georgia > Family Ranidae (True Frogs).
Available @ https://srelherp.uga.edu/anurans/ranvir.htm

Beane, Jeffrey C.; Alvin L. Braswell; Joseph C. Mitchell; William M. Palmer; and Julian R. Harrison III. 2010. "Carpenter Frog Rana virgatipes (or Lithobates virgatipes)." Page 152. In: Amphibians and Reptiles of the Carolinas and Virginia. With contributions by Bernard S. Martof and Joseph R. Bailey. Second Edition, Revised and Updated. Chapel Hill NC: The University of North Carolina.

"carpenter frog (Lithobates virgatipes)." Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries > Wildlife Information > Species Information > Amphibians.
Available @ https://web.archive.org/web/20141031224730/http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/wildlife/information/?s=020005

"Carpenter Frog (Lithobates virgatipes)." Herpedia A Guide to the Reptiles & Amphibians of the United States > Reptiles of the United States > Frogs & Toads > Ranidae (True Frogs).
Available @ https://www.herpedia.com/frogs-toads/ranidae/carpenter-frog.html

"Carpenter Frog Lithobates virgatipes." Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey > Our Species > Field Guide > New Jersey Endangered and Threatened Species Field Guide.
Available @ http://www.conservewildlifenj.org/species/fieldguide/view/Lithobates%20virgatipes/

"Carpenter Frog Lithobates virgatipes." Virginia Herpetological Society > Animals > Frogs & Toads > Frogs & Toads of Virginia.
Available @ https://www.virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com/amphibians/frogsandtoads/carpenter-frog/carpenter_frog.php

Cope, E.D. (Edward Drinker). November 1891. A New Species of Frog From New Jersey: Rana virgatipes, sp. nov. The American Naturalist, vol. XXV, no. 299 (November 1891): 1017-1019. Philadelphia PA: Ferris Bros., 1891.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41208589
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/mobot31753002156658#page/1017/mode/1up

Dickerson, Mary C. 1906. "Rana virgatipes, Cope." The Frog Book; North American Toads and Frogs With a Study of the Habits and Life Histories of Those of the Northeastern States: 222-224; Color Plate XIII. New York NY: Doubleday, Page & Company.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/1184248
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/stream/frogbooknorthame01dick#page/222/mode/1up

Dubois, Alain, Docteur d'État. 2003. "True frogs (Ranidae)." Pages 245-264. In: Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd edition. Volume 6, Amphibians, edited by Michael Hutchins, William E. Duellman and Neil Schlager. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group.

Elliott, Lang; Carl Gerhardt; and Carlos Davidson. 2009. "Carpenter Frog." Pages 58-59. In: The Frogs and Toads of North America: A Comprehensive Guide to Their Identification, Behavior and Calls. Boston MA; New York NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Frost, Darrel. "Lithobates virgatipes (Cope, 1891)." Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.1. American Museum of Natural History > Our Research > Vertebrate Zoology > Herpetology > Amphibian Species of the World Database.
Available @ https://amphibiansoftheworld.amnh.org/Amphibia/Anura/Ranidae/Lithobates/Lithobates-virgatipes

Gill, Theodore. Biographical Memoir of John Edwards Holbrook, 1794-1871. Read Before the National Academy of Sciences, April 22, 1903.
Available via NASOnline (National Academy of Sciences) @ http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/holbrook-j-e.pdf

Gregoire, Denise R. 2005. "Carpenter Frog Rana virgatipes." Tadpoles of the Southeastern United States Coastal Plain. United States Geological Survey Report. Gainesville FL: Florida Integrated Science Center, 2005.
Available via USGS Southeast Ecological Science Center @ https://fliphtml5.com/zlwu/ikhx/basic

Hammerson, G. 1 April 2005. "Lithobates virgatipes Carpenter Frog." NatureServe Explorer > Search > Search for species and ecosystems. Page Last Published 9/1/2022.
Available @ https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.105956/Lithobates_virgatipes

IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group. 2014. "Lithobates virgatipes." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: e.T58747A64725320. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2014-3.RLTS.T58747A64725320.en.
Available @ https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/58747/64725320

Morrow, Danielle. 2007. "Lithobates virgatipes Carpenter Frog" (On-line). Animal Diversity Web. Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.
Available @ https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Lithobates_virgatipes/

Petranka, Jim; Steve Hall; and Tom Howard; with contributions from Harry LeGrand. "Lithobates virgatipes - Carpenter Frog." Amphibians of North Carolina [Internet]> Scientific Name Common Name Family Find. Raleigh NC: North Carolina Biodiversity Project and North Carolina State Parks.
Available @ https://auth1.dpr.ncparks.gov/amphibians/view.php?checklist_number=30.0

Sandmeier, Franziska. 23 February 2001. "Rana virgatipes (Cope, 1891)." AmphibiaWeb > Browse by Taxa Lists > Browse Alphabetically > Anura (Frogs) > Anura: Pse-Re > Rana virgatipes. Berkeley CA: University of California, Berkeley.
Available @ https://amphibiaweb.org/cgi/amphib_query?where-genus=Rana&where-species=virgatipes