Lithobates vibicarius (Cope, 1894)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Ranidae > Genus: Lithobates > Species: Lithobates vibicarius

Levirana vibicaria Cope, 1894, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 46: 197. Syntypes: Not stated; but AMNH 5463 and 7445 catalogued as syntypes; AMNH 5463 designated lectotype by Zweifel, 1964, Copeia, 1964: 300. Type locality: "Rancho Redondo on the divide of the Irazu Range" and "Isla Nueva near the head of the Rio Sucio, on the Atlantic side", Costa Rica; restricted by lectotype designation to "Rancho Redondo, on the divide of the Irazú range", Cantón de Goicoechea, Provincia de San José, Costa Rica. Savage, 1974, Rev. Biol. Tropical, 22: 103, commented on the type locality.

Rana godmani Günther, 1900, Biol. Centr. Amer., Rept. Batr., Vol. 7, Part 153: 204. Syntypes: 3 specimens including BMNH 1947.2.28.18 and 1947.2.3.10–11 (formerly 1902.5.12.4–5) according to museum records. Type locality: "Costa Rica, Rio Sucio [1900–2000 m, Cantón de Cartago, Provincia Cartago]". Savage, 1974, Rev. Biol. Tropical, 22: 109, commented on the type locality. Synonymy suggested as likely by Boulenger, 1919, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 9, 3: 414–415; made by Barbour and Loveridge, 1929, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 69: 138–146.

Rana vibicaria — Dunn, 1922, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 35: 221.

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

Rana (Trypheropsis) vibicaria — Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 330.

Rana (Novirana, Sierrana, Ranula, Levirana, Trypheropsis) vibicaria — Hillis and Wilcox, 2005, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 34: 305. 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 vibicarius — 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) vibicarius — Dubois, 2006, C. R. Biol., Paris, 329: 829; Dubois, 2006, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 42: 325.

Rana (Trypheropsis) vibicaria — Hillis, 2007, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 42: 335–336, by implication.

Rana (Lithobates) vibicaria — Yuan, Zhou, Chen, Poyarkov, Chen, Jang-Liaw, Chou, Matzke, Iizuka, Min, Kuzmin, Zhang, Cannatella, Hillis, and Che, 2016, Syst. Biol., 65: 835.

English Names

Rancho Redondo Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 110).

Distribution

Cloud forests in the Cordillera de Tilarán, Cordillera Central, and Cordillera de Talamanca of Costa Rica and western Panama, 1500–2700 m elevation.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Costa Rica, Panama

Comment

Sole member of the Rana (Trypheropsis) vibicaria group of Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 330. In the Rana palmipes group of Hillis and de Sá, 1988, Herpetol. Monogr., 2: 1–26. See Taylor, 1952, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 35: 900–903, and Hillis and de Sá, 1988, Herpetol. Monogr., 2: 1–26, for synonymy and discussion. Lips and Savage, 1996, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 109: 17–26, included this species (as Rana vibicaria) in a key to the tadpoles found in Costa Rica. See accounts by Zweifel, 1964, Copeia, 1964: 300–308; Villa, 1988, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 437: 1–2; and Savage, 2002, Amph. Rept. Costa Rica: 403–404. See photograph, map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status (as Rana tlaloci) in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 514. Köhler, 2011, Amph. Cent. Am.: 291–295, provided a brief summary of natural history and identification key for the species of Lithobates in Central America and provided a range map and photograph for this species. Coelho, Camurugi, and Garda, 2023, Organisms Divers. Evol., 23: 967–981, reported on niche divergence, phylogenetics, and biogeography as part of the Lithobates palmipes group (as the Rana palmipes group).

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