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Excerpts from Jim Conrad's
Naturalist Newsletter
from the October 23, 2016 Newsletter issued from Rancho Regensis north of Valladolid, Yucatán MÉXICO
LEOPARD FROG IN THE YUCATÁN
We've documented a species of leopard frog both in the US and Mexico, but this week I saw my first one here in the Yucatan. Below, it's shown on a log sticking from the water of a rancho pond
*UPDATE: At first I assumed that this was the Rio Grande Leopard Frog, Lithobates berlandieri, commonly seen in Texas and upland northern and central Mexico. In a manner, it was, if you recognized that it was the subspecies of the Rio Grande frog known as Lithobates berlandieri ssp. brownorum, which I didn't know about in 2016.
However, in 2024, I find that in the Yucatan a leopard frog looking like the above is to be known as LITHOBATES BROWNORUM. On the iNaturalist website, this species is commonly observed throughout the Yucatan Peninsula southwestward into southern Veracruz state, and southeastward into Nicaragua. The iNaturalist site says that the species is subject to special protection in Mexico, which sounds right because nearly all amphibians are threatened because of habitat destruction, chemicals and climate change.
In the 1973 paper by Ottys Sanders introducing this taxon to science, entitled "A New Leopard Frog (Rana berlandieri brownorum) from Southern Mexico," with regard to how to visually distinguish this taxon from Lithobates berlandieri, it's said that "Its pattern is composed of linear streaks and oblong spots as opposed to the large, irregular, rounded spots in other races of Rana berlandieri." I find berlandieri also with oblong spots and don't regard that as a solid field mark. More distinctive appears to be their different calls, noticed by various authors.
At this time, the best, and possibly the only, way visually to distinguish Lithobates brownorum from Lithobates berlandieri appears to be its location. In the Yucatan Peninsula, according to iNaturalist, our frog must be Lithobates brownorum.