Southern Leopard Frog

Rana utricularia

Southern Leopard Frog

SLFR

Status

The Southern Leopard Frog is common to abundant rangewide.

Description

The Southern Leopard Frog is a medium-sized (5–12.7 cm), slender, brown and/or green frog with large, round, dark spots on its dorsum. It has a yellow upper jaw stripe and conspicuous dorsolateral folds. This species has at times been described under the specific name of Rana sphenocephala. Collins (1990) lists two subspecies: sphenocephala and utricularia.

Distribution

Rana utricularia occurs from Long Island and southern New York to southern Florida and the Keys. Westward, it extends to eastern Texas and north in the Mississippi Valley to southeastern Kansas, Missouri, central Illinois, and southern Indiana. This species is apparently absent from the Appalachian highlands (Conant and Collins 1991).

Habitat

This ubiquitous species occupies a variety of shallow freshwater habitats, even entering slightly brackish marshes along the coast and sea islands (Harrison 1978; Conant and Collins 1991; Neill 1958). It breeds in permanent and semi-permanent woodland ponds and pools, grassy marshes, flooded roadside ditches, pine flatwoods, potholes, canals, floodplain pools, beaver ponds, and Carolina bays. During late summer and fall, it ventures some distance from water into mesic woodlands.

Special Requirements

The Southern Leopard Frog requires grassy, marshy habitat in which to breed.

Breeding Habits

This species breeds primarily in the winter and early spring (Wright and Wright 1949), but occasionally will breed in the fall (Martof and others 1980). The female deposits several hundred eggs, often communally with other females, in clumps. The eggs hatch in seven to ten days; tadpoles metamorphose in 67–86 days (Wright and Wright 1949).

Food Habits

This frog’s diet is comprised primarily of insects, other arthropods, and worms.

Management Suggestions

The Southern Leopard Frog is adaptable and presently does not appear to need any special management as long as wetlands are left intact.

Additional References

Pace 1974.