A new species of leopard frog (Rana pipiens complex) from the Plains of the central United States /
Abstract
Sufficient evidence has accumulated over the last six years to show that the leopard frogs (Rana pipiens, sensu lato) of North America actually include several forms that merit recognition as distinct species.Littlejohn and Oldham (1968) showed that four essentially allopatric forms, recognizable on the basis of mating call structure and morphology of adult males, occur in the central United States.These were referred to informally as the northern, western, eastern, and southern call types.Narrow zones of sympatry were located be tween western and eastern, western and southern, and between eastern and southern call types in Texas.The zone of overlap between west ern and southern call types was found to be about 16 kilometers wide in north-central Texas, and that between southern and eastern call types was estimated to be about eight kilometers wide in central Texas.Also, Post and Pettus (1967) found an overlap zone only eight kilometers wide between so-called CF (continuous dorsolateral folds) and DF (displaced dorsolateral folds) complexes (corresponding to the northern and western call types, respectively) in Colorado, and Flury (1972) collected both northern and western call types together in northern Nebraska.Brown and Brown (1972) found the western call type in sympatry with both eastern and northern call types in Illinois, and overlap between western and southern call types in Texas has been confirmed by Purcell (1968), Mecham (1969), Cuellar (1971), and Platz (1972).Platz (1972) found the overlap zone between west-
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