New County Records and Other Data Since 1996

Rana utricularia Harlan - Southern Leopard Frog

Since publication of Atlas of Amphibians in Tennessee (Redmond, W. H. and A. F. Scott. 1996. The Center for Field Biology, Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, TN. 94 pp.), several applicable taxonomic and nomenclatural changes and numerous reports of new county records have appeared in the literature. Comments, accompanied by cited references, on the taxonomic and nomenclatural changes plus an updated distribution map and bibliographical information on new county records as they pertain to Rana utricularia follow: 

Taxonomic and Nomenclatural Changes

Based on a move to suppress in favor of priority by the International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature (Opinion, 1685, 1992, Bull. Zool. Nomenclature, 49:171-173), Crother (2000) listed the binominal of this species as R. sphenocephala, thus negating the former name R. uticularia.  Subsequent to this change, the genus Rana was split by Frost et al. (2006), and all of the eastern North American ranid species placed in the genus Lithobates.  In the latest list of scientific and standard English names of the frogs of North America north of Mexico (Frost et al. 2017), the binomial for the Southern Leopard Frog is given as Lithobates sphenocephalus and the subspecies that occurs in Tennessee (Florida Leopard Frog) as L. s. sphenocephalus.

Literature Cited:

Crother, B. I. 2000. Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North American North of Mexico, PP 1-82. SSAR Herpetological Circular 29.

Frost, D. R., T. Grant, J.Faivovich, R. H. Bain, A. Haas, C. F. B. Haddad, R. O. De Sá, A. Channing, M. Wilkinson, S. C. Donnellan, C. J. Raxworthy, J. A. Campbell, B. L. Blotto, P. Moler, R. C. Drewes, R. A. Nussbaum, J. D. Lynch, D. M.. Green, W. C. Wheeler. 2006. The amphibian tree of life. Bulletin of the American Museum of natural History 297: 1-370.

Frost, D. R., E. M. Lemmon, R. W. McDiarmid, and J. R. Mendelson III. 2017. Anura: Frogs.  IN B. I. Crother (ed.), Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North American North of Mexico, With Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding. SSAR Herpetological Circular 43:1-102.

Updated Distribution Map
(Click on the Map for an Enlarged View)

Update to Lithobates sphenocephalus

Literature Containing New County Records

Anderson, Meigs, Polk, and Rhea counties

Glorioso, B.  2011. Southern Leopard Frog. Pp. 313-315 In M. L. Niemiller and R. G. Reynolds (eds.), The amphibians of Tennessee. The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville. 369 pp.

Gibson County

Hall, J. M.  2008.  Geographic distribution.  Lithobates sphenocephalus.  Herpetol. Rev. 39:479.

Grainger County 

Faust, T. M. and M. Mayfield. 2012. Geographic distribution.  Lithobates sphenocephalus.  Herpetol. Rev. 43:300.

Henderson County

Barton, L. J., T. R. Hughes, K. A. Robertson, and D. T. Hamlett. 2016. Geographic distribution: Lithobates sphenocephalus. Herpetol. Rev. 47:249.

Houston County

Scott, A. F., S. Sutton, and S. Williamson. 2000. New county records of amphibians and turtles from the Western Highland Rim of central Tennessee. Herpetol. Rev. 31:117-118.

The coordinates as given in this report for Lithobates sphenocephalus in Houston County are incorrect. They should read 36°17'02"N, 87°37'29"W.

Lawrence County

Messer, H.A. and B.P. Butterfield.  2007.  New records for anurans from Lawrence County, Tennessee. Herpetol. Rev. 38:245.

Lewis and Marion counties 

Davenport, J. M., J. R. Ennen, and A. F. Scott. 2005. New records for amphibians from counties in south-central Tennessee.  Herpetol. Rev. 36:209-210.

The coordinates as given in this report for Lithobates sphenocephalus in Lewis County are incorrect. They should read 35°31'07"N, 87°36'13"W.

Loudon County

Hoverman, J. T., M. J. Gray, D. L. Miller and N. A. Haislip. 2012. Widespread occurrence of ranavirus in pond-breeding amphibian populations. EcoHealth 9:36-48.

Although not pointed out by the authors, this article includes the first published record of Lithobates sphenocephalus from Loudon County.

Marshall, Maury and Williamson counties

Anderson, M. A., D. B. Estrabrooks and R. A. Johnston.  2011.  Geographic distribution.  Lithobates sphenocephalus.  Herpetol. Rev. 42:563.

Moore County

Niemiller, M.L., B.M. Glorioso, G.R. Wyckoff, III, and J.K. Spiess.  2007.  New county records for amphibians in Middle Tennessee.  Herpetol. Rev. 38:234.

Trousdale County

Glorioso, B.M. and J. Pruett.  2007.  New records for amphibians and reptiles from Trousdale County, Tennessee.  Herpetol. Rev. 38: 247-248.