Description: The Rio Grande leopard frogs grow from 2.2 to 4.5 inches in length. They are usually tan, brown, or pale green in color, with distinctive black spotting with prominent light-colored ridges down either side of their backs. Their noses are angular, and they have long, powerful legs with webbed feet.
Habitat: Along streams and rivers, springs, stock ponds, backwaters, canals, drainage ditches, and arroyo pools in grassland, shrubland, savanna, desert, and woodland areas; chiefly a stream dweller. Utilizes both temporary and permanent water. Eggs and larvae develop in flowing or nonflowing water (mostly the former). Where introduced, uses mainly ditches, canals, irrigation sumps and ponds, and highly modified rivers.
Range: Extreme southern New Mexico (Eddy County) and central and western Texas (north to Collin County) south through eastern and southern Mexico through the Yucatan peninsula, Belize, northern Guatemala to northeastern Nicaragua. Introduced and well established at numerous sites in the Imperial Valley of California, along the lower Colorado River from at least one site along the Baja California Norte-Sonora border to a point north of Yuma and south of Blythe, and east 165 miles along the Gila River, to approximately Buckeye, Maricopa County
Diet: Metamorphosed frogs probably eat various small invertebrates. Larvae probably eat suspended matter, organic debris, benthic diatoms, algae, plant tissue, and other minute organisms in water.
Reproduction: Lays eggs after rains at almost any time of year, mostly March-May and August-November in Texas. Populations sympatric with other leopard frog species may breed only during the late-summer to early winter period.
Status: It is easily confused with other species that share its range, such as the Plains Leopard Frog (Lithobates blairi). It is unknown whether hybridization occurs. The species has also been introduced to the Colorado River in California and Arizona, and is known to be expanding its range south into Mexico in the state of Baja California. It is believed to be contributing to the population reduction of the Lowland Leopard Frog, (Lithobates yavapaiensis), which is native to the region. This expansion of range is the primary factor in the Rio Grande leopard frog being classified as least concern, by the IUCN Red List.
Subspecies: None
Taxonomy: This species was placed in the genus Lithobates by Frost et al. (2006). However, Yuan et al. (2016, Systematic Biology, doi: 10.1093/sysbio/syw055) showed that this action created problems of paraphyly in other genera. Yuan et al. (2016) recognized subgenera within Rana for the major traditional species groups, with Lithobates used as the subgenus for the Rana palmipes group. AmphibiaWeb recommends the optional use of these subgenera to refer to these major species groups, with names written as Rana (Aquarana) catesbeiana, for example.
Disclaimer: ITIS taxonomy is based on the latest scientific consensus available, and is provided as a general reference source for interested parties. However, it is not a legal authority for statutory or regulatory purposes. While every effort has been made to provide the most reliable and up-to-date information available, ultimate legal requirements with respect to species are contained in provisions of treaties to which the United States is a party, wildlife statutes, regulations, and any applicable notices that have been published in the Federal Register. For further information on U.S. legal requirements with respect to protected taxa, please contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
){kind=link}