Rana macrocnemis Boulenger, 1885

English Names

Brusa Frog (Rana macrocnemis: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 108).

Iranian Long-legged Wood Frog (Rana macrocnemis: Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 125).

Iranian Long-legged Frog (Rana macrocnemis: Borkin, 1997, in Gasc et al. (eds.), Atlas Amph. Rept. Eur.: 150; Kuzmin, 1999, Amph. Former Soviet Union: 334).

Caucasian Brown Frog (Rana macrocnemis: Borkin, 1997, in Gasc et al. (eds.), Atlas Amph. Rept. Eur.: 150; Tarkhnishvili and Gokhelashvili, 1999, Adv. Amph. Res. Former Soviet Union, 4: v; Arakelyan, Danielyan, Corti, Sindaco, and Leviton, 2011, Herpetofauna of Armenia: 45).

Caucasus Frog (Rana macrocnemis camerani: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 106).

Banded Frog (Rana macrocnemis camerani: Baloutch and Kami, 1995, Amph. Iran: 157).

Transcaucasian Frog (Rana macrocnemis camerani: Baloutch and Kami, 1995, Amph. Iran: 157).

Long-legged Wood Frog (Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, Fahimi, Broomand, Yazdanian, Najafi-Majd, Hosseinian Yousefkani, Rezazadeh, Hosseinzadeh, Nasrabadi, Mashayekhi, Motesharei, Naderi, and Kazemi, 2015, Asian Herpetol. Res., 6: 266). 

Turkish Frog (Rana holtzi [no longer recognized]: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 107).

Distribution

West-central and south-central eastern Asia Minor of Turkey to Caucasus Mountains of Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan; thence into northwestern Iran (West Azarbaijan, East Azarbaijan, Ardabil, Zanjan, Kordestan, Kermanshah, Hamedan, Qazvin, and Mazandaran provinces); isolated population in Kopet-Dag mountains of Turkmenistan. See comment. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Russia, Turkey, Turkmenistan

Comment

In the Section Rana, subgenus Rana, Rana temporaria group of Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 333. The distinction/synonymy of Rana macrocnemis and Rana camerani is controversial; see Delwig, 1928, Zool. Anz., 79: 37–44; Mensi, Lattes, Macario, Salvidio, Giacoma, and Balletto, 1992, Zool. J. Linn. Soc., 105: 293–311, Tarkhnishvili and Gokhelashvili, 1996, Alytes, 14: 27–41; Kuzmin, 1999, Amph. Former Soviet Union: 288–291 (who rejected all subspecies); and Çevik, Arikan, Kaya, and Atatür, 2006, Amphibia-Reptilia, 27: 63–71 for discussion and transfer of the population from Mount Erciyes from Rana camerani to Rana macrocnemis.  Kuzmin, 2013, Amph. Former Soviet Union, Ed. 2: 207–211, provided an account for the former USSR.See also Borkin, 1977, Trudy Zool. Inst. Akad. Nauk SSSR, Leningrad, 74: 24–31; Mensi, Lattes, Macario, Salvidio, Giacoma, and Balletto, 1992, Zool. J. Linn. Soc., 105: 293–311, for discussion of phylogenetic relationships. Kami and Vakilpoure, 1996, Herpetol. Rev., 27: 150, provided a record for Chaharmahal Baktiari Province and commented on the range (as Rana camerani). Tarkhnishvili, Arntzen, and Thorpe, 1999, Herpetologica, 55: 406–417, studied the morphometrics of frogs from Georgia and provided evidence of considerable geographic variation, though not species boundaries between nominal Rana macrocnemis and Rana camerani. Tarkhnishvili, Hille, and Böhme, 2001, Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 74: 141–156, looked at the issue of Rana macrocnemis and Rana camerani using mtDNA and reported on the complex system of hybridization and seeming intergradation between the forms. Ishchenko and Pjastolova, 1973, Zool. Zh., 52: 1733–1735; Kuzmin, 1999, Amph. Former Soviet Union: 335–336; Picariello, Scillitani, Feliciello, Bellinello, Maresca, and Chinali, 2000, Riv. Idrobiol., 38: 187, considered Rana camerani to be a junior synonym of Rana macrocnemis. Başoğlu and Özeti, 1973, Türkiye Amphibileri: 103–105, provided accounts for the Turkish populations (as Rana macrocnemis and Rana cameranoi). Borkin, 1997, in Gasc et al. (eds.), Atlas Amph. Rept. Eur.: 150–151, discussed relevant literature and range. Tuniyev, 1999, Adv. Amph. Res. Former Soviet Union, 3: 58–59, summarized the taxonomic history. See Baran, 1969, Sci. Rep. Fac. Sci. Ege Univ., Izmir, 80: 1–78 (who removed Rana holtzi from the synonymy of Rana camerani, where it had been placed by Boulenger, 1898, Tailless Batr. Eur., 2: 298), and Başoğlu and Özeti, 1973, Türkiye Amphibileri: 105–106. Mensi, Lattes, Macario, Salvidio, Giacoma, and Balletto, 1992, Zool. J. Linn. Soc., 105: 293–311, reported on phylogenetic relationships. Veith, Kosuch, and Vences, 2003, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 26: 310–327, suggested that Rana macrocnemis macrocnemis, Rana camerani, and Rana holtzi are conspecific, and that other populations of "Rana macrocnemis" (now Rana tavasensis and Rana pseudodalmatina) are outside of this clade. Özeti and Yilmaz, 1994, Türkiye Amfibileri: 153–156, provided an account for Turkish populations. Brief account provided by Günther in Engelmann, Fritzsche, Günther, and Obst, 1993, Lurche Kriechtiere Eur.: 167–168. Baloutch and Kami, 1995, Amph. Iran: 159–160, provided an account for Iran. Veith, Kosuch, and Vences, 2003, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 26: 310–327, and Veith, Schmidtler, Kosuch, Baran, and Seitz, 2003, Mol. Ecol., 12: 185–199, provided evidence that Rana macrocnemis tavasensis and Rana macrocnemis pseudodalmatina are distinct species. See comments under Rana tavasensis and Rana pseudodalmatina. Crochet and Dubois, 2004, In Gasc et al. (eds)., Atlas Amph. Rept. Europe, Ed. 2: 499, discussed the issue of Rana camerani and Rana macrocnemis and thought that they should be regarded as subspecies. Arakelyan, Danielyan, Corti, Sindaco, and Leviton, 2011, Herpetofauna of Armenia: 45–46, provided a brief account for Armenia and environs. Afsar, Afsar, and Arikan, 2014, Herpetozoa, Wien, 26: 115–123, reported a population in the Emir Mountains of western inner Anatolia, Turkey, and reviewed the taxonomic history of the Rana macrocnemis–Rana holtzi–Rana tavasensis controversies. Afsar, Afsar, and Arikan, 2015, Herpetozoa, Wien, 28: 15–27, discussed populations of southeastern Turkey previously of uncertain species assignment. Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, Fahimi, Broomand, Yazdanian, Najafi-Majd, Hosseinian Yousefkani, Rezazadeh, Hosseinzadeh, Nasrabadi, Mashayekhi, Motesharei, Naderi, and Kazemi, 2015, Asian Herpetol. Res., 6: 257–290, reported on distribution and conservation status in Iran. Rana holtzi was emoved from the synonymy of Rana macrocnemis on the basis of morphological differences by Baran, Ilgaz, Kumlutaş, Olgun, Avcı, and Iret, 2007, Turkish J. Zool., 31: 1–7, where it had been placed by Picariello, Feliciello, Scillitani, Cataudo, Maresca, and Chinali, 2000, Riv. Idrobiol., 38: 167, and Veith, Kosuch, and Vences, 2003, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 26: 325. See discussion of Rana holtzi by Afsar, Afsar, and Arikan, 2015, Herpetozoa, Wien, 28: 15–27. See Baran, 1969, Sci. Rep. Fac. Sci. Ege Univ., Izmir, 80: 1–78 (who removed Rana holtzi from the synonymy of Rana camerani, where it had been placed by Boulenger, 1898, Tailless Batr. Eur., 2: XXX), and Başoğlu and Özeti, 1973, Türkiye Amphibileri: 105–106 (who provided an account of Rana holtzi). Mensi, Lattes, Macario, Salvidio, Giacoma, and Balletto, 1992, Zool. J. Linn. Soc., 105: 293–311, reported on phylogenetic relationships. See comment under Rana macrocnemis. Ergül Kalaycı, Kalaycı, and Özdemir, 2017, Biochem. Syst. Ecol., 73: 26–34, provided evidence from mt and nuDNA that Rana holtzi represents part of the geographic variation of Rana macrocnemis. Najibzadeh, Veith, Gharzi, Rastegar-Pouyani, Rastegar-Pouyani, Kieren, and Pesarakloo, 2017, Amphibia-Reptilia, 38: 339–250, employing solely two partial mtDNA loci suggested that Rana holtzi, Rana camerani, and Rana macrocnemis are distinct lineages. Avcı, Üzüm, Bozkurt, and Olgun, 2018, Russ. J. Herpetol., 25: 17–24, provided records for Tunceli Province, east-central Turkey. Beşir and Gül, 2019, Herpetol. Notes, 12: 45–51, provided a dot map for Rize Province, northeastern Turkey. Salman, 2019, Biol. Appl. Environ. Res., 3: 61–71, reported this species from Iraq but did not mention a specific locality. Mulder, 2019, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 13: 162–172, reported the species from the Mount Ararat region of extreme eastern Turkey. See Dufresnes, 2019, Amph. Eur., N. Afr., & Middle East: 95, for brief summary of identifying morphology and biology, a range map, as well as a photograph.  Key to the species, synonymy, distribution (including map), and access to literature for Iran provided by Safaei-Mahroo and Ghaffari, 2020, Compl. Guide Amph. Iran: 1–331. Yaşar, Çiçek, Mulder, and Tok, 2021, North-West. J. Zool., Romania, 17(e201512): 232–275, discussed (as both Rana holtzi and Rana macrocnemis) and grid-mapped the range in Turkey. Gasimova, 2021, Biharean Biol., 15: 112–116, discussed the range in Azerbaijan, and provided a dot map. Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, and Niamir, 2023, Zootaxa, 5279: 1–112, provided for Iran an identification key including this species, photographs, habitat and conservation threats, a review of the literature, discussion of nomenclature and systematics, as well as dot and modeled distribution maps. 

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• For information on distribution, habitat, and conservation see the Map of Life
• For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist
• For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.