Pickerel Frog

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This article is about the pickerel frog. For the pickerel fish, see Esox.

iPickerel Frog

Pickerel in the White Mountains (New Hampshire)

Conservation status

Least Concern (LC)

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Amphibia
Order:	Anura
Family:	Ranidae
Genus:	Lithobates
Species:	L. palustris

Binomial name

Lithobates palustris
(LeConte, 1825)

Pickerel Frog range

Synonyms

Rana palustris

The Pickerel Frog (Lithobates palustris^[1]^[2], previously Rana palustris) is a small North American frog, characterized by the appearance of seemingly "hand-drawn" squares on their dorsal surface. All other leopard frogs have circular spots.

1 Distinguishing features
2 Range
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Distinguishing features

The spots of pickerel may blend together to form a long rectangle along the back. In addition, they have prominent dorsolateral ridges that are unbroken. A very distinguishing mark is the orange or yellow coloring found within the hind legs. The frog must be picked up to examine this as the legs cover the coloration otherwise. The Plains Leopard Frog (Lithobates blairi) exhibits this coloration as well, but the dorsolateral ridges are inset medially in this species.

[edit] Range

The pickerel ranges in the west from much of Wisconsin, southeast Minnesota, eastern Iowa, through Missouri and down to eastern Texas. To the east they extend through northern Louisiana, most of Mississippi, northern Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina to the coast. Their northern range extends into Canada in the southern reaches of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. The range is spotty through the midwestern states and a field guide should be obtained for the specifics on ranges in a particular area.

[edit] References

^ Frost, Darrel R. 2006. Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 4 (17 August 2006). Electronic Database accessible at http://research.amnh.org/herpetology/amphibia/index.php. American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA.
^ Frost et al. 2006. The amphibian tree of life. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. Number 297. New York. Issued March 15, 2006.

Hammerson (2004). Rana palustris. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 09 May 2006. Database entry includes a range map and justification for why this species is of least concern
Redmer, M. and Mierzwa, K.S. (1994). "A review of the distribution and zoogeography of the pickerel frog, Rana palustris, in northern Illinois". Bulletin of the Chicago Herpetological Society 29: 21-30.