Subspecies: Carolina Gopher Frog - Rana capito capito

 Subspecies: Florida Gopher Frog - Rana capito aesopus

(no photo available)

• Diagnostic Features: Carolina Gopher Frog
  • Size: 2.5 to 3.5 inches
  • Color:
    • Variable, but dark, ranging from gray to brown
  • Other:
    • Spots black, reddish brown or dark brown, but faint
    • Warts always prominent, variable in shape, almost pavementlike
    • Short, plump frog
    • Ventral surfaces heavily marked with dark flecks
  • Sexual Dimorphism:
    •  
• Diagnostic Features: Florida Gopher Frog
  • Size: 2.75 to 3.75 inches
  • Color:
    • Varies from creamy white to brown through yellowish or purplish
  • Other:
    • Black or dark brown markings; irregular and not with light borders
    • Back my be smooth or slightly warty
    • Chin and throat spotted; belly usually unmarked posteriorly
    • Short, plump frog
  • Sexual Dimorphism:
    • Males may have yellow on the dorsolateral ridges, on the warts, along upper jaw, and in armpits and groins
• Natural History:
  • Habitat:
    •  Sandy
  • Behavior:
    • Daytime, Gopher Tortoise burrows and other deep shelter
    • Active at night
  • Breeding:
    •  January - March
    • Explosive Breeders, normally after heavy rains
    • Egg mass is a large globular cluster attached to stems
• Voice: Sonogram : Call ( Okaloosa County, FL, & Taylor County GA)
  • A deep snore, like the distant roar of an outboard motor; more continuous and hoarser than the Southern Leopard Frog
• Tadpoles:
  • Tadpole stage 85 - 100 days
  • Transformed young are 27 - 38 mm long
  • 
  • LTRF usually 2/3; regardless of size, stage or range
  • iris always with iridophores in life; length of one side of A- 2/width of medial gap ca. .5; P-2/P-3 ca. 1.7; P-1 without a medial gap; midventral marginal papillae large; submarginal papillae few to absent; dorsal fin originates near tail-body junction and forms medium arch; white lip line usually absent; variable, depending on turbidity, from uniformly dark to uniformly pale, fins usually clear but may have bold markings; lentic, usually temporary sites, breeds explosively in early spring throughout Mississippi Embayment and Gulf and Atlantic coastal plains (no accurate means of distinguishing between R. areolata, R. capito, and R. pipiens + R. sphenocephala)
• Range: Carolina Gopher Frog:
  • In North America, it is found in the coastal plain of the Carolinas and east-central Georgia
  • In Georgia, it is found scattered thru the southeast part of the state.

    

• Range: Florida Gopher Frog:
  • Coastal plain, south Georgia to southern Florida, isolated colony in west-central Georgia
  • In Georgia, it is found in a single southeastern county.

    

  • In Light Blue: Williamson, Gerald K. & Moulis, Robert A., Distribution of Amphibians and Reptiles in Georgia, Special Publication No. 3, Savannah Science Museum, Inc. Savannah, Georgia, 1994
  • In Green: Sound Recordings
  • In Yellow: From Both '94 study and Sound Recordings
  • In Magenta: Photograph, not found by '94, may or may not be sound record
  • In Medium Blue: Photograph and in '94 study, may or may not be sound record 
  • In Orange: County Record by other Herp Atlas Volunteers
  • In Red: US Distribution from various sources

June 28, 2003 - wwknapp@mindspring.com