Amphibian Species of the World 5.6, an Online Reference

Rana fisheri Stejneger, 1893, N. Am. Fauna, 7: 227. Holotype: USNM 18957, according to Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 73. Type locality: "Vegas Valley, [Clark County,] Nevada", USA.

Rana pipiens fisheri — Stebbins, 1951, Amph. W. North Am.: 365).

Rana onca fisheri — Stebbins, 1985, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 2: 91. by implication; Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 238. See comment.

Rana (Rana) fisheri — Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 41-42. by implication.

Rana (Pantherana) fisheri — Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 331.

Rana (Novirana, Sierrana, Pantherana, Stertirana, Lacusirana) fisheri — Hillis and Wilcox, 2005, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 34: 312. See Dubois, 2006, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 42: 317-330, Hillis, 2007, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 42: 331-338, and Dubois, 2007, Cladistics, 23: 390-402, for relevant discussion of nomenclature. Invalid name formulation under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (1999) as discussed by Dubois, 2007, Cladistics, 23: 395.

Lithobates fisheri — Frost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, de Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green, and Wheeler, 2006, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 297: 369. Che, Pang, Zhao, Wu, Zhao, and Zhang, 2007, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 43: 1-13; by implication.

Lithobates (Lithobates) fisheri — Dubois, 2006, C. R. Biol., Paris, 329: 829. Dubois, 2006, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 42: 325.

Rana (Lacusirana) fisheri — Hillis, 2007, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 42: 335-336. by implication.

English Names

Vegas Valley Leopard Frog (Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 83; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 177; Stebbins, 1966, Field Guide W. North Am. Rept. Amph.: 76; Frost, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2008, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 37: 8; Frost, McDiarmid, Mendelson, and Green, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 17).

Vegas Valley Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 107; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 14).

Distribution

Extinct at the type locality (Las Vegas, Clark County, Nevada, USA), but populations along the Mogollon Rim in Arizona to west-southwestern New Mexico persist.

Comment

Confused with Rana onca in recent literature until sorted by Jaeger, Riddle, Jennings, and Bradford, 2001, Copeia, 2001: 339-351. Extinct since the 1940's in the Las Vegas area (see Honegger, 1981, Biol. Conserv., 19: 142). See Platz, 1984, Status report for Rana onca Cope, U.S. Fish Wildlife Serv.. Included in the Rana (Pantherana) berlandieri group by Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 331 (although the holotype is clearly a member of the Rana montezumae group—DRF). Hillis and Wilcox, 2005, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 34: 308, suggested that extant populations of Lithobates chiricahuensis from Mogollon Rim region of central Arizona were likely referable to Lithobates fisheri. See map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 139, who regarded the species as extinct. Hekkala, Saumure, Jaeger, Herrmann, Sredl, Bradford, Drabeck, and Blum, 2011, Conserv. Genetics, 12: 1379-1385, provided genetic evidence that the populations found in central Arizona to western New Mexico were attributable to this species.

External Links

Please note: these links will take you to external websites not affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History. We are not responsible for their content.

• For additional sources of information from other sites search Google
• For images search Arkive, CalPhoto Images and Google Images
• To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
• For information aggregation from other sites and some original accounts see AmphibiaWeb report
• For further information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
• For related information on conservation and images as well as observation see iNaturalist;
• for a quick link to their maps see iNaturalist KML