Wood Frog Lithobates sylvaticus  (LeConte, 1825)
An adult specimen from Manitoba, Canada Image © Suzanne L. Collins, 2005
Taxonomic Comments:
Hammerson (1999 Amphibians and Reptiles in Colorado. Second Edition. University Press of Colorado, Niwot. xxvi + 484 pp.), based on evidence by Bagdonas and Pettus (1976), recommended that Rana maslini Porter,1969 be synonymized with Rana sylvatica. Collins & Taggart (2002 Standard Common and Current Scientific Names for North American Amphibians, Turtles, Reptiles, and Crocodilians. Fifth Edition) submitted for consideration the proposal by Hammerson (1999 op. cit.) to an anuran systematist group composed of David Cannatella, S. Blair Hedges, David M. Hillis, Anne M. Maglia, Paul E. Moler, and Emily C. Moriarty, and they agreed. Frost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, De Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green & Wheeler (2006. The Amphibian Tree of Life. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 297: 1-370) placed this species in the genus Lithobates (Fitzinger, 1843). Adoption of this genus requires the specific name to change to sylvaticus. The standard common name remains Wood Frog.