Cliff Chirping Frog (Eleutherodactylus [Syrrhophus] marnockii)

An Annotated Bibliography of the Cliff Chirping Frog
(Syrrhophus marnockii Cope)

Compiled by Tom Lott [TEL] - Last updated 16 January 2016.

[These bibliographies and their annotations are an on-going project. I have many comments on papers that I have not yet posted but I will attempt   to attend to this task as time allows. Comments proffered in the annotations are strictly my own opinions and should be taken as such. If you wish to comment or supply additional references that I have overlooked, you may contact me via E-mail. To correspond with me, Email me at tomlott[at]thornscrub[dot]com.  Thanks for reading, Tom Lott ]


Baker, J.K. 1956. Frogs of Texas caves. Tex. Caver 1(10): 8-9.

Baldauf, R.J. and E.C. Tanzer. 1965. Contributions to the cranial morphology of the leptodactylid  frog, Syrrhophus marnocki Cope. Tex. J. Sci. 17(1):71-100.

Bartlett, R.D. and P.P. Bartlett. 1999b.  A Field Guide to Texas Reptiles and Amphibians. Gulf Publishing Company, Houston, Texas.  [As Eleutherodactylus (Syrrhophus) marnockii.  Provides a typical field guide account, complete with a vague range map, an excellent color photo of an individual from an unspecified locality, and a generally good description of the species' characteristics.  However, the statement "Once rather firmly associated with natural areas, the cliff chirping frog is now known from urban trash piles, dumping areas, and watered lawns, as well" sounds much more descriptive of E. cystignathoides than E. marnockii, which I personally have never found in edificarian situations, although I would not be totally surprised if this were true in some of the more densely populated areas on the southern edge of the Edwards Plateau.  I would be very surprised to find them very far from limestone outcroppings or at least masonry constructions that resemble such, such as stone fences, etc.  Later, under "Similar Species," the Bartletts suggest using range maps to distinguish between the three Texas species, since "The ranges of the other two species of chirping frogs do not overlap with the range of the cliff chirping frog," which was not true even in 1999 when this work appeared (the first published Bexar County record of E. cystignathoides {Mather and Dixon 1976} was from an area barely on the Balcones Fault Zone, which is generally the southern limit of E. marnockii in central Texas. - TEL]

Blair, W.F. 1949. The biotic provinces of Texas. Texas J. Sci. 2(1):93-117.

Brown, B.C. 1950. An annotated check list of the reptiles and amphibians of Texas. Waco, Tex.:Baylor Univ. Studies. [Referred to as the "Balcones Chirper."  Recorded in thirteen central Texas counties, west to Val Verde and Sutton Cos.   A key to the Texas species is provided. Suggests (under the S. gaigeae {= S. guttilatus} account) that S. marnocki and S. gaigeae "may actually be the same species or at most subspecies."   Under "Remarks": "Syrrhophus marnockii is common throughout its range in central Texas.  It is perhaps one of our most interesting and picturesque frogs.  Little is known of its life history as is true of all the members of the genus Syrrhophus in Texas.  Its relation to S. gaigeae needs investigation." -- TEL]

Conant, R. 1958. A field guide to the reptiles and amphibians of the United States and Canada east of the 100^th meridian. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.

_________. 1975. A field guide to the reptiles and amphibians: Eastern and central North America. 2^nd edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.

_________. and J.T. Collins. 1991. A field guide to reptiles and amphibians of eastern-central North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.

________________________. 1998. A field guide to reptiles and amphibians of eastern-central North America, 3^rd edition (expanded). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.

Cope, E.D. 1878a. A Texas cliff frog. Am. Nat. 12: 186.  [Apparently not actually written by Cope, this very brief article refers to Craugastor latrans rather than S. marnockii - TEL]  [PDF]

Cope, E.D. 1878b. A new genus of Cystignathidae from Texas. Am. Nat. 12: 253. [The incredibly brief original "description" of this taxon -- TEL]  [PDF]
Cope, E.D. 1889. The Batrachia of North America. Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus. 34: 1-525.

Curtis, L. 1951b. Physiographic influence of the Edwards Plateau on its endemic amphibian fauna-a resume. Field Lab 19(3): 119-124.

Dickerson, M.C. 1931. The frog book. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran and Co.

Dixon, J.R. 1987. Amphibians and reptiles of Texas. College Station: Texas A&M Press.

_________. 1993. Supplement to the literature for the Amphibians and reptiles of Texas, 1987. Smithson. Herpetol. Info. Serv. 94:1-43.

_________. 1996b. Ten year supplement to Texas herpetological county records published in Amphibians and reptiles of Texas, 1987. Texas Herpetol. Soc. Spec. Publ. (2):1-64.

_________. 1997. 1997 supplement to Texas herpetological county records and Texas literature. Texas Herpetol. Soc. Spec. Publ. (3):1-14

_________. 2000. Amphibians and reptiles of Texas. (2^nd edition). College Station: Texas A&M Press.  [Includes 61 literature citations for this species- from which most of these were initially drawn;  declines to follow Hedges' lumping of Syrrhophus into a subgenus of Eleutherodactylus.  Under "Remarks": "M.J. Forstner suspects that there is a gradient in size and color pattern between the cliff and spotted chirping frogs (pers. comm.).  It seems evident that Big Bend and Edwards Plateau chirping frogs are closely related, and probably represent the same species."  - TEL]

_________. 2013. Amphibians and reptiles of Texas. 3rd Ed. W. L. Moody, Jr., Nat. Hist. Ser. 25. College Station: Texas A&M University Press.  [As Syrrhophus (Eleutherodactylus) marnockii.  Provides 65 literature citations for this taxon.  Omits a Crockett County record (Pope et al. 2008), which is erroneously attributed and mapped to S. cystignathoides in the account for that species. - TEL]

_______., Hibbitts, T.J., and M.R.J. Forstner. 2007. Texas herpetological literature and county records 2000 to 2006-07.  Publ. Tex. Herpetol. Soc. 1(1):1-58.

Dodd, C. Kenneth. 2013. Frogs of the United States and Canada, 2-vol. set. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Kindle Edition.  [Includes a good taxonomic history.  Extensively cites Jameson (1955) for natural history information.  Includes a photo of habitat as well as an adult. - TEL]

Fouquette, M.J., Jr. 1960. Call structure in frogs of the family Leptodactylidae. Tex. J. Sci. 12(3-4): 210-215.

Frost, Darrel R. 2004. Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 3.0 (22 August, 2004). Electronic Database accessible at: http://research.amnh.org/herpetology/amphibia/index.html. American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA.  [Under Eleutherodactylus, provides synonymy, English names (though omitting Bryce Brown's {1950} "Balcones Chirper"), distribution, contained taxa, incertae sedis, and comments -- TEL]

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. [Resurrected the full genus Syrrhophus from Eleutherodactylus -- TEL]

Ferguson, A.W., McDonough, M.M., and M.R.J. Forstner. 2008.  Herpetofaunal inventory of Camp Mabry, Austin, Texas: Community composition in an urban landscape.  Tex. J. Sci. 60:123-136.

Gaige, H.T. 1931.  Notes on Syrrhophus marnocki Cope.  Copeia 1931:63.

Garrett, J.M. and D.G. Barker. 1987. A Field Guide to the Reptiles and Amphibians of Texas. Austin: Texas Monthly Press.

Gehlbach, F.R. And J.K. Baker. 1962. Kingsnakes allied with Lampropeltis mexicana: Taxonomy and natural history.  Copeia 1962 (2): 291-300.  [Mentioned that this frog, along with Craugaster augusti latrans, had been collected in the Dunbar Cave sinkhole in Edwards County, Texas, where a specimen of Lampropeltis alterna was found by the junior author. - TEL]

Hampton, N. 1976. Annotated checklist of the amphibians and reptiles of Travis County, Texas. Pp. 84-101 in A bird finding and naturalist's guide for Austin, Texas, area. Edited by E. Kutac and S. Caran. Austin, Tex.: Oasis Press.

Hedges, S.B., Duellman, W.E. & Heinicke, M.P. 2008. New World Direct-developing Frogs (Anura: Terrarana): Molecular Phylogeny, Classification, Biogeography, and Conservation. Zootaxa 1737: 1-182. [The Family Eleutherodactylidae ("Free-toed Frogs") is resurrected to include all US members of Eleutherodactylus/Syrrhophus -- TEL]

Heinicke, M.P., Duellman, W.E. and Hedges, S.B. 2007. Major Caribbean and Central American Frog Faunas Originated by Ancient Ocenaic Dispersal. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104(24): 9913-10294 [Once again returns genus Syrrhophus to Eleutherodactylus -- TEL]

Hibbard, C.W. and W.W. Dalquest. 1966. Fossils from the Seymour Formation of Knox and Baylor Counties, Texas, and their bearing on the late Kansan climate of that region. Contrib. Mus. Paleontol. Univ. Mich. 21: 1-66.

[The authors describe this period as follows: "The climate at the time this fauna lived is considered to have been frost free, mesothermal, moist, subhumid and of the maritime type." - TEL]

Holman, J.A. 1969a. Pleistocene amphibians from a cave in Edwards County, Texas. Tex. J. Sci. 21(1): 63-68.

Holman, J.A. 1969c. The Pleistocene amphibians and reptiles of Texas. Publ. Mich. State Mus. Biol. Ser. 1(6): 203-60.  [Summarizes records of fossils attributed to this species: "Localities. LATE KANSAN: Vera faunule, Knox County (Tihen 1960, Hibbard and Dalquest 1966). SANGAMON: Easley Ranch local fauna, Foard County (Lynch 1964).
             "Remarks. Both of these records are from sites that lie well within the Kansan biotic province today. Syrrhophus marnocki is a species that is now a common cavernicolous form in the Balconian biotic province, and ranges into the Chihuahuan biotic province in the mountains (Blair 1950). Thus, the fossils are far north of their present-day range. Both the Vera faunule record and the Easley Ranch local fauna record are based on a single ilium." -TEL]

Hubbs, C. and F.D. Martin. 1967. Bufo valliceps breeding in artificial pools. Southwest Nat. 12(1): 105-106.

________., Edwards, R., Powell, R., Potter, F., Longley, G., Telfair, R., Baccus, J., and D.J. Schmidly. 1984. Endangered, threatened, & watch list of vertebrates of Texas.  Austin: Texas Organization for Endangered Species.

Husack, J.F. 1998. Geographic distribution. Eleutherodactylus marnockii. Herpetol. Rev. 29(1): 48  [Tom Green Co. record; from 8 km S Christoval; on the South Concho River - TEL]

Jameson, D.L. 1954. Social patterns in the leptodactylid frogs Syrrhophus and Eleutherodactylus. Copeia1954 (1): 36-38.

Jameson, D.L. 1955. The population dynamics of the cliff frog, Syrrhophus marnocki. Amer. Midl. Nat. 54(2): 342-381.  [Still the best and only comprehensive study of the ecology of this species, combining extensive field work, experimental field manipulations, and laboratory observations.  Population studies were conducted at 12 different sites around Austin, Texas.  Densities were estimated at between 1.2-8.9 frogs/acre, the variation being attributed to the amount and composition of saxicolous habitat, combined with available moisture and vegetational cover.  Peaks in breeding activity were in April-May and another during September-October, both coinciding with rain events.  Calls were most pronounced in the early evening, decreasing as the night progressed; during the more intensive breeding periods, however, calls may be heard throughout the night and into the daylight hours.  Notes difficulty in sexing individuals, relying mainly upon the presence of visible eggs in the abdomen of adult females and the calling of adult males.  It was surmised that males mated several times during the year, while females may mate from 1-3 times per year.  Amplexus is axillary.  Amplexing frogs may continue to chirp, possibly guiding females to moist deposition sites, since males in captivity ceased chirping while in amplexus at a moist site.  No natural egg deposition sites were discovered during this study, despite efforts specifically directed towards finding them.  Captive females laid from 8-20 eggs in soil depressions, which were subsequently covered by both sexes.  All eggs laid in captivity proved sterile.  Noted, from the drowning of a captive placed in a jar of water, that the frogs are incapable of swimming, possibly accounting for a decrease in activity observed during periods of intense rainfall.  Calculated home ranges appeared to vary with habitat type from 0.052-0.139 acres; the smallest home ranges being found within the most diverse habitat types.  Frogs were observed at temperatures as high as 90^oF. 

LaDuc, T.J. and C.R. Infante. 2001. New Texas county records of amphibians and reptiles.  Herpetol. Rev. 32(4): 284-285. [Caldwell County record - "Lockhart, 4 mi NE. 14 November 1953. Trevino. TNHC 20753." There are no other comments with this entry despite the fact that it is an outlier to the usual distribution and habitat of this species - TEL]

Lynch, J.D. 1964. Additional hylid and leptodactylid remains from the Pleistocene of Texas and Florida. Herpetologica 20(2): 141-142. 


Lynch, J.D. 1970. A taxonomic revision of the leptodactylid frog genus Syrrhophus Cope. Univ. Kans. Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist. 20(1): 1-45.

Malnate, Edmond V. 1971.  A Catalog of Primary Types in the Herpetological Collections of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia (ANSP).  Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila.  123: 345-375
["Syrrhophus marnocki Cope 1878.  American Naturalist, 12: 252
             Syntypes:  (4)  ANSP 10765-68; Texas, Bexar County, nr. San Antonio:  G. W. Marnock."
Apparently this designation of syntypes (two or more specimens selected from available material to serve as types) was necessary due to the extremely abbreviated nature of Cope's original type "description". - TEL] [Access: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4064676?seq=9#page_scan_tab_contents ]

Malone, J.H. 1998. Geographic distribution. Syrrhophus marnockii. Herpetol. Rev. 29(4): 247. [Bandera Co. Record; from Lost Maples State Natural Area (but see Smith and Chiszar 1997) - TEL]

________., and Paredes-Leon, R. 2005.  Characteristics of chigger mite (Hannemania sp.) parasitism on Eleutherodactylus marnocki (Amphibia: Leptodactylidae).  Tex. J. Sci. 57:345-358.

Marr, J.C. 1944. Notes on amphibians and reptiles from the central United States. Am. Midl. Nat. 32(2): 478-490.  [Recorded one specimen from Sutton County on 23 April 1942: "This specimen, SNHM 7644, was taken two miles north of Sonora under a large, flat piece of limestone.  It had rained the night before and the ground was quite moist." - TEL] [PDF]    

Maxwell, T.C. 2013. Wildlife of the Concho Valley.  College Station: Texas A&M Univ. Press. 292 pp.  [Only two museum records for this species were found from the Concho Basin, one each from Schleicher and Tom Green counties.  However, "This elusive frog is most likely more widely distributed over the Concho Valley where limestone exposures occur." - TEL]

McAlister, W. 1954. Natural history notes on the barking frog. Herpetologica 10(3): 197-199.

Merker, Gerald.  1999.   The Lovely Cliff Chirping Frog.  Reptile Hobbyist March, 1999: 44-48.   [Provides field observations, photos of S. marnocki (along with S. c. campi and S. guttilatus; erroneously states that the latter is "protected" by the state of Texas), as well as rare captive management techniques.  States that S. marnockii has not been bred in captivity -- TEL]

Milstead, W.W. 1960a. Supplementary notes on the herpetofauna of the Stockton Plateau. Tex. J. Sci. 12(3): 228-231.   [A follow-up to the 1950 paper, Milstead re-visited several of his Stockton Plateau sites in 1957 and 1959.   In 1957 the area was in the final stages of the great seven year drought which had begun in 1949.  In 1959, vegetative recovery from the drought was "remarkable."  In the persimmon-shinoak association, "Cliff frogs (Syrrhophus marnocki) were abundant during night collecting trips on the rim rocks in 1949, and their calls were frequently heard.   No individuals were seen or heard in 1957 or 1959." -- TEL]

Milstead, W.W. 1960b. Relict Species of the Chihuahuan Desert. Southwest. Nat. 5(2):75-88.   [Including what is now considered S. guttilatus, Milstead listed S. marnockii as one of fourteen relict species of the Chihuahuan Desert. "Collections in Big Bend National Park in 1957 and 1958 yielded several additional specimens and indicated that the population is still quite strong.  It appears to have disappeared from the Stockton Plateau, however." This last statement is puzzling and apparently based upon his failure to see or hear them during his return visits to his Stockton Plateau localities where they were formerly abundant at the surface (Milstead, W.W. 1960a) -- TEL]

Milstead, W.W. 1965b. Notes on some poorly known fossils of box turtles (Terrapene). Copeia 1965(4): 513-514.

Milstead, W.W., J.S. Meacham, and H. McClintock. 1950. The amphibians and reptiles of the Stockton Plateau in northern Terrell County, Texas. Tex. J. Sci. 2(4): 543-562.  [In this study S. marnockii was found to be remarkably concentrated in the "Cedar-Oak Association" (i.e., Juniper-Oak assn.), which is described as: ". . . occurs in narrow canyons and canyon heads.  It has a high amount of rock coverage and thick vegetation, mostly cedar and shinoak."  Twenty-four of the 26 specimens of this species collected (92.3%) were from this vegetational association, with one each (3.8% each) from the Persimmon-shinoak and Live-oak associations.  The authors were unable to distinguish the calls of these Stockton Plateau frogs from that of those from the eastern part of the Edwards Plateau.
              The authors were further unable to distinguish betweenS. marnockii and the recently described Big Bend form, S. gaigae, on the basis of coloration as stated in the description of S. gaigae (Schmidt and Smith 1944), and they concluded that those authors' purported differences in head width between these two populations was a function more of growth than of overall difference.  Consequently they proposed relegating S. gaigae to the synonymy of S. marnockii.  This study also filled-in a significant gap in the known range of the two populations between the Edwards Plateau and the Big Bend area. - TEL]

Mohr, C.E. 1939. I explore caves. Nat. Hist. 43(4): 190-204.

Mohr, C.E. 1948c. Unique animals inhabit subterranean Texas. Bull. Natl. Speleol. Soc. 10: 15-21, 88.



Mohr, C.E. 1958. Creatures of darkness. Illus. Lib. Nat. Sci. 1:606-617.

Morafka, D.J. 1977. A biogeographical analysis of the Chihuahuan desert through its herpetofauna. Biogeographica 9: 1-313. [Asserted that S. marnockii and S. guttilatus were conspecific based upon specimens intermediate between the two collected in the Sierra de Agava, east of Monclova, Nuevo Leon -- TEL]

Olson, R.E. 1958. An Inquiry Into the Status of the Texas Frogs of the Genus Syrrhophus.  Bull. S.W. Tex. Herp. Soc. 1(1): 4  [Author states that except for "trivial" differences in size, almost no differences exist between S. marnockii and S. campi.   Comparing dorsal markings on thirteen preserved S. campi (collected in 1925 by R.D. Camp himself) in the Witte Memorial Museum collection with preserved S. marnockii, Olson found "no appreciable difference between the marking (such as it could be determined) on the preserved campi and the marnocki."   He also cites his collection of a topotypical S. marnockii with a reticulate dorsal pattern (supposedly a character of the similar sized S. gaigeae (= S. guttilatus) as an indication that the incidence of the reticulate pattern might increase to the west in marnockii, making gaigeae at best a subspecies of S. marnocki (he is apparently unaware that Milstead et al. {1950} had previously proposed the sinking of S. gaigae).  Olson provides comparative measurements of a typical marnockii and his reticulate specimen from the same locality.  Line drawings of the dorsum of each specimen are also presented.  He concludes that: "There is much need for collecting aiming for Syrrhophus in the counties between Bexar and Cameron, and Uvalde to Brewster," clearly implying that the three taxa are conspecific. -- TEL] [PDF]

Olson, R.E. 1959.   Herpetofaunal Notes On South-Central Texas Caves.  Bull. S.W. Tex. Herp. Soc. 2(1): 4-7.  [Author considers S. marnockii to be a "semi-permanent inhabitant" of caves, along with Eleutherodactylus latrans and most of the neotenic Euryceas.  These are described as herptiles with the "ability to carry on life in total darkness." He notes also that S. marnockii from caves are "faded lavender" in coloration, while surface dwelling specimens are "almost invariably leaf-green." -- TEL] [PDF]

Owen, J.G. 1989. Patterns of herpetofaunal species richness : Relation to temperature, precipitation, and variance in elevation. J. Biogeogr. 16:141-150.

Owen, J.G. and J.R. Dixon. 1989. An ecogeographic analysis of the herpetofauna of Texas. Southwest Nat. 34(2): 165-180.

Owen, Jacob D., Marshall, Thomas. L. and Drew R. David. 2014.  Geographic distribution.  Eleutherodactylus (=Syrrhophus) marnockii.  Herpetol. Rev. 45(4): 652.  [Presidio County record: Sierra Vieja Mountains, Camp Holland. " We recognize this specimen as E. marnockii based on phenotypic similarity to individuals from the Edwards Plateau, following Milstead et al. (1950. Texas J. Sci. 2:543–562). This species had previously been heard calling in canyons at this locality; however, collection attempts over the last 60 years have been unsuccessful (Jameson and Flury 1949, op cit. and T. J. LaDuc, pers. comm.). To the best of our knowledge, only two other voucher specimens of this species have been collected in Presidio Co., both in 1968 from San Esteban Lake (19.3 km SE of Marfa, Texas; Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collections [TCWC] 26056, 26057), ~74 km SW of Camp Holland. The next nearest locality of this species is from two specimens collected in 1964 from Musquiz Canyon, SE of Fort Davis (likely where it bisects the Arkansas and Puertacitas Mountains; TCWC 81651, 81652) in southeastern Jeff Davis Co., ~88 km E of Camp Holland. These four TCWC specimens are currently catalogued as E. guttilatus."  Unfortunately the authors fail to mention the kind of rock substrate their specimens were found upon, since S. guttilatus may merely represent a color phase of S. marnockii found on igneous substrates rather than limestone ones. - TEL]

Parmley, D. 1988a.Additional Pleistocene amphibians and reptiles from the Seymour Formation, Texas. J. Herpetol. 22(1): 82-87.

Parmley, D. 1988b. Middle Holocene herpetofauna of Klein Cave, Kerr County, Texas. Southwest. Nat. 33(3): 378-382.  [One ilium, presumably of this species, was found in late Pleistocene/early Holocene deposits in this cavern located ca. 20 km WSW of Mountain Home, Kerr County. - TEL]

Pope, B. D., Roelke, C. R. and Makowsky, R.  2008.  Geographic distribution.  Eleutherodactylus (=Syrrhophus) marnockii.  Herpetol. Rev. 39 (3): 362. [Crockett Co. record, erroneously attributed and mapped to S. cystignathoides in Dixon (2013). - TEL]

Price, M. S.  and T. M. Dimler. 2015. New Distributional Records for the Herpetofauna of Texas. Herpetol. Rev. 46(4): 605–607. [Reports a specimen from Ozona, Crockett County as filling a distributional gap.  However this county has previously been reported for this species by Pope et al. (2008) - TEL]

Raun, G.G. and F.R. Gehlbach. 1972.  Amphibians and reptiles in Texas. Dallas Mus. Nat. Hist. Bull. 2: 1-61.  [As Syrrhophus marnocki (sic); lists 37 citations; mentions fossil records from Knox, Foard, and Edwards counties (without attribution); county distribution map shows only records from Edwards and Stockton plateaus - TEL]

Reddell, J.R. 1970. A checklist of the cave fauna of Texas. VI. Additional records of Vertebrata. Tex. J. Sci. 22(2-3): 139-158.

Reddell, J.R., and O. Knox. 1962. The caves of Bexar County. J. Tex. Speleol. Soc. 1(4): 1-38.  [Scans of the spirit master original note that this cave was visited on two occasions in 1949 by David L. Jameson, apparently in association with work toward his Masters Degree (Jameson 1949).  He collected thirteen barking frogs, several Syrrhophus marnockii, two "leopard frogs", a Bufo punctatus, and a Bufo valliceps.  Plethodon salamanders were described as "numerous."  It is noted also that two copperheads had been removed from the cave earlier. - TEL]
[PDF]  


_________., and A.R. Smith. 1965. The caves of Edwards County.  Tex. Speleol. Surv. 2:1-70.
Schmidt, K.P. 1953. A checklist of North American amphibians and reptiles. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Smith, H.M. and H.K. Buechner. 1947. The influence of the Balcones Escarpment on the distribution of amphibians and reptiles in Texas. Bull. Chi. Acad. Sci. 8(1): 1-16.

Smith, H.M., and D Chiszar. 1997. New records for amphibians and reptiles from Texas. Herpetol. Rev. 28(2): 99-100.  [Bandera County record, several specimens from near Medina. - TEL]

Smith, H.M., and J.R. Dixon. 1987. The amphibians and reptiles of Texas: A guide to records needed from Mexico. Bull. Md. Herpetol. Soc. 23(4): 154-157.



Smith, H.M., and O. Sanders. 1952a. Distributional data on Texas amphibians and reptiles. Tex. J. Sci. 4(2): 204-219.

Strecker, J.K. 1908b. A preliminary annotated list of the Batrachia of Texas. Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 21: 53-62.

Strecker, J.K. 1915.   Reptiles and amphibians of Texas.  Baylor Univ. Bull. 18(4): 1-82. [Called "Marnock's Frog," this species was given only the terse entry, "Known only from the type locality, Helotes, Bexar County, Texas." -- TEL]

__________., 1922.  An annotated catalogue of the amphibians and reptiles of Bexar County, Texas.  Bull. Sci. Soc. of San Antonio 4:1-31.  [As "Marnock's Frog," "Syrrhopus marnocki" (sic): "The type locality for this species is given as 'near San Antonio, Texas' but the types were really from the vicinity of the Marnock homestead on Helotes Creek.  Like Eleutherodactylus latrans, this frog inhabits limestone bluffs.  Although discovered more than forty years ago, it has not been found in any other locality." - TEL]

Strecker, J.K. 1930. A catalogue of the amphibians and reptiles of Travis County, Texas. Contr. Baylor Univ. Mus. 23:1-16.

Strecker, J.K. 1933. Collecting at Helotes, Bexar County, Texas. Copeia 1933(2): 77-79.  [A posthumously published article.  "Here, within a stone's throw of his home, he {Marnoch} discovered the type specimens of the frogs described by Cope under the name Lithodytes (now Eleutherodactylus) latrans and Syrrhophus marnockii, the skink Eumeces brevilineatus Cope, the little variegated gecko many years later named Coleonyx brevis by Dr. Stejneger. . . .
              "Later in the year, in early November, . . . I again visited the place. . . . The singleSyrrhophus marnockii was also found under a rock similar to those which housed the geckos.  It was discovered early in the morning before it had thrown off the lethargy occasioned by the coolness of the preceding night and made no effort to get away but hugged the ground closely as though attempting to escape our observation by counterfeiting the appearance of its surroundings, which were  not very different in color to the animal." - TEL]

Strecker, J.K. and W.J. Williams. 1927. Herpetological records from the vicinity of San Marcos, Texas, with distributional data on the amphibians and reptiles of the Edwards Plateau region and central Texas. Contr. Baylor Univ. Mus. 12:1-16.

Tihen, J.A. 1960. Notes on late Cenozoic hylid and leptodactylid frogs from Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Southwest. Nat. 5(2): 66-70.

Tipton, B.L., Hibbitts, T.L., Hibbitts, T.J., Hibbitts, T.D. and T.J. LaDuc. 2012. Texas Amphibians: A Field Guide. University of Texas Press: Austin, 2012.  Softcover.  325 pp. 

Turner, F.B. 1960. Post metamorphic growth in anurans. Am. Midl. Nat. 64(2): 327-238.

Turner, F.B. 1962. The demography of frogs and toads. Q. Rev. Biol. 37(4): 303-314.

Wallace, J. Eric. 2005.  Eleutherodactylus (=Syrrhophus) marnockii (Cope, 1878a). Cliff Chirping Frog. in Lannoo, Michael (ed.), Amphibian Declines: the conservation status of United States species.  Berkeley: Univ. of Cal. Press, pp. 496-499.  [Relies heavily upon Jameson (1955) for natural history information on this species.  Notes that this frog receives no governmental protection at either the federal or state level.  Speculates that the arrival of S. cystignathoides in urban areas along the Balcones Escarpment may result in direct contact between the two species, possibly resulting in hybridization, competition, and the introduction of novel disease pathogens.  Notes that investigation of the persistence of S. marnockii at Jameson's (1955) urban sites in the Austin area would be rewarding - indeed it seems remarkable that this has not been done, considering the number of state universities in the general area. - TEL]

Wauer, R. 1980. Naturalist's Big Bend. An introduction to the trees and shrubs, wildflowers, cacti, mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, fish, and insects. College Station: Texas A&M University Press.

Wright, A.H., and A.A. Wright. 1938. Amphibians of Texas. Proc. Trans. Tex. Acad. Sci. 21(2): 5-44.

Wright, A.H., and A.A. Wright. 1949. Handbook of frogs and toads of the United States and Canada. Ithaca, N.Y.: Comstock Publishing Co.   [Perhaps the best (and wonderfully anecdotal) account of this species yet to be published, from notes made more than seventy years ago - TEL ]

On-Line Resources

AmphibiaWeb Species Account [Under Eleutherodactylus, provides a generally up to date summary of taxonomic and natural history references for this taxon -- TEL]


Frost, Darrel R. 2004. Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 3.0 (22 August, 2004). Electronic Database.  American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA. [Under Eleutherodactylus, provides synonomy, English names, distribution, contained taxa, incertae sedis, and comments -- TEL]