Spotted Chirping Frog (Eleutherodactylus [Syrrhophus] guttilatus

An Annotated Bibliography of the
Spotted Chirping Frog
[Eleutherodactylus (Syrrhophus) guttilatus (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, I can be reached at: tomlott[at]thornscrub[dot]com  Thanks for reading, Tom Lott]

Anon. 1978. Species listings for nongame regulations. Tex. Parks Wildl. Dept. Broch. 9000-52: 1-22.  

Ashton, R.E. 1976. Endangered and threatened amphibians and reptiles in the United States. Soc. Stud. Amphib. Rept.; Herp Circular (5): 1-65.

Axtell, R. W. 1959b. Amphibians and reptiles of the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area, Brewster County, Texas. Southwest. Nat. 4(2): 88-109.  ["The cliff frog was not taken by the group {14 graduate students in geology and zoology present for five weeks in June and July of 1951, during the 1950-1956 drought}, but their calls were frequently heard in the limestone cliff habitat.  Several attempts to collect these small leptodactylids at night failed." Considering that a portion of Black Gap contains extensive limestone outcrops, these heard frogs may have been S. marnockii - TEL]

Bartlett, R.D. and P.P. Bartlett. 1999b.  A Field Guide to Texas Reptiles and Amphibians. Gulf Publishing Company, Houston, Texas.  .  [As Eleutherodactylus (Syrrhophus) guttilatus.  Provides a typical field guide account, complete with a vague range map, excellent color photos of both light and dark individuals from unspecified localities, and a generally good description of the species' characteristics. Published before the Davis Mountain populations were definitely known to exist.  Suggests identifying specimens on the basis of range, which will not work if this "species" contacts marnockii in the vicinity of the Marathon Uplift. - TEL]

Brown, B.C. 1950. An annotated check list of the reptiles and amphibians of Texas. Waco, Tex.:Baylor Univ. Studies. 

Bryson, R.W., Jr. and J.M. Mueller. 2002. New county records of amphibians and reptiles from Texas.  Herpetol. Rev. 33(3): 229. [Jeff Davis County record - Documents Hollister's 1990 specimens from the Davis Mountains, deposited in Sul Ross Collection - TEL]

Conant, R. 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.

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

Contreras-Lozano, J.A., Lazcano, D., Contreras-Balderas, A.J. and P.A. Laví n-Murcio. 2010.  Notes on Mexican Herpetofauna 14: An Update to the Herpetofauna of Cerro El Potosí, Galeana, Nuevo León, México.  Bull. Chicago Herpetol. Soc. 45(3): 41-46.  [Deletes E. cystignathoides from the fauna of this locality (strictly defined) as was erroneously reported in a prior publication (Anon. 2000).  Documents the presence of E. guttilatus, however - TEL]

Dayton, G.H., Skiles, R. and L. Dayton. 2007.  Frogs and Toads of Big Bend National Park.  College Station: Texas A&M Press.  [Follows Dixon (2000) in keeping the genus Syrrhophus, considering generic placement to be currently unresolved and concedes that this form may be conspecific with S. marnockii.  States that the Big Bend population is probably relictual and that the closest locality for this species outside the park is Elephant Mountain, apparently unaware of the Christmas Mtns. population, which has been fairly well - if unofficially - documented.  Considers the frogs hard to find within the Park and that they may be more widely distributed than is generally recognized. - TEL]

Degenhardt, W.G. and W.W. Milstead. 1959.  Notes on a second specimen of the snake Tantilla cucullata Minton.  Herpetologica 15(3): 158-159.  [Notes only that this species (as "S. marnocki") occurs sympatrically with T. cucullata, Crotalus lepidus, Gerrhonotus infernalis, etc., in the Green Gulch area of Big Bend National Park - TEL]

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.

________. 2000. Amphibians and reptiles of Texas. (2^nd edition). College Station: Texas A&M Press    [Includes 28 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 - 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 (Elutherodactylus) guttilatus.  Contains 32 literature citations for this subspecies in Texas.  Provides a distribution map including only four counties: Brewster, Presidio, Jeff Davis, and Pecos.  Continues a remark that calls of this species have been reported from the east side of the Davis Mountains, Jeff Davis County, even though that county is mapped in the current edition and the citation for the record is listed (Bryson and Mueller 2002).  An excellent color photo of a specimen from Presidio County is included.  I have reviewed this book HERE. - TEL]

Dodd, C. Kenneth. 2013. Frogs of the United States and Canada, 2-vol. set. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Kindle Edition.  [States that much information on this species is to be found under S. marnockii.  Fails to include the fact that the species has been documented from the Davis Mountains (Bryson and Mueller 2002), rather than just as calls heard (Dixon 2000).  Cites Gaige (1931) for information on natural history but cautions that Gaige may have based some of her data on E. marnockii, which was considered - and may well be - the same species at the time. Provides a good summary of taxonomic history as well as photos of an adult and habitat in the Chisos Mountains. - TEL]

Edwards, R.J. G. Longley, R. Ross, J. Ward, R. Matthews, and B. Stewart. 1989. A classification of Texas aquatic communities with special consideration toward the conservation of endangered and threatened taxa. Tex. J. Sci. 41(3): 231-240.

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., K. A. Arnold, K. Culbertson, D. J. Schmidly, C. Hubbs, and R. A. Thomas. 1975. TOES watch-list of endangered, threatened, and peripheral vertebrates of Texas. Tex. Org. Endang. Species Publ. 1: 1-12.

Jameson, D.L. and A.G. Flury. 1949.  Reptiles and amphibians of the Sierra Vieja.  Tex. J. Sci. 1(2): 54-79.

Jung, R.E., Bonine, K.E., Rosenshield, M.L., DeLa Raza, A., Raimondo, S and S. Droege. 2002.  Evaluation of canoe surveys for anurans along the Rio Grande in Big Bend National Park, Texas.  J. Herpetol 36:390-397.

Kluge, A.G. 1984.  Type-specimens of reptiles in the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.  Misc. Pub. Univ. Mich. Mus. Zool. 167:1-85.

Lazcano, D., A. Kardon, R. J. Muscher and J. A. Contreras-Lozano. 2011. Notes on Mexican Herpetofauna 16: Captive Husbandry–Propagation of the Exiled Mexican Garter Snake, Thamnophis exsul Rossman, 1969.  Bull. Chi.  Herpetol. Soc. 46(2):13-14.  [Provides a list of species sympatric with Thamnophis exsul in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, including:  "Galeana false brook salamander, Pseudoeurycea galeanae; primeval flatfooted salamander,  Chiropterotriton priscus; spotted chirping frog, Eleutherodactylus (Syrrhophus) guttilatus; graphic spiny lizard, Sceloporus grammicus; minor lizard, Sceloporus minor; blue-bellied lizard, Sceloporus parvus; torquate lizard, Sceloporus torquatus; northern alligator lizard, Barisia ciliaris; mountain horned lizard, Phrynosoma orbiculare; Nuevo León graceful brown snake, Rhadinaea montana; Texas patch-nosed snake, Salvadora grahamiae lineata; Mexican yellow-bellied brown snake, Storeria hidalgoensis; Mexican highland garter snake, Thamnophis pulchrilatus; Tamaulipan rock rattlesnake, Crotaluslepidus morulus; Mexican black-tailed rattlesnake, C. molossus nigrescens, and eastern twin-spotted rattlesnake, C. pricei miquihuanus." - TEL]

Lynch, J.D. 1970. A taxonomic revision of the leptodactylid frog genus Syrrhophus Cope. Univ. Kans. Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist. 20(1): 1-45.   [Revision of genus, assigning Trans-Pecos frogs formerly in S. gaigae/S. marnockii into the Mexican species S. guttilatus. -- TEL]

Marx, H. 1958.  Catalogue of type specimens of reptiles and amphibians in the Chicago Natural History Museum.  Fieldiana Zool. 36:411-496.

McCord, J.S., and M.E. Dorcas. 1989. New Texas herpetological distribution records from the University of Texas at Arlington collection of vertebrates. Herpetol. Rev. 20(4): 94-96. [Pecos County record - 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]

Minton, S.A. 1959.  Observations on amphibians and reptiles of the Big Bend region of Texas.  Southwest. Nat. 3: 28- 54.  ["Not collected.  The published records are for springs and canyons above 5000 feet in the Chisos Mountains (Schmidt and Smith as S. gaigae).  The prolonged drought in this region may have accounted in part for our failure to find this frog." - TEL]

Owen, J. G. 1989. Patterns of herpetofaunal species richness: Relation to temperature, precipitation, and variance in elevation. J. Biogeogr. 16: 141-50.

_________., and J. R. Dixon. 1989. An ecogeographic analysis of the herpetofauna of Texas. Southwest. Nat. 34(2): 165-80.

 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]

Peters, J.A. 1968. Houston toad - Bufo houstonensis Sanders (endangered).  In Rare and Endangered Fish and Wildlife of the United States.  USDI/BSFW Res. Publ. 34, sheet RA-10.

Raun, G.G. and F.R. Gehlbach. 1972.  Amphibians and reptiles in Texas. Dallas Mus. Nat. Hist. Bull. 2: 1-61.  [As Syrrhophus guttilatus: lists only 14 citations; states that it is "Known only from Brewster and Presidio counties.  Most of the literature lists this species as S. gaigeae or S. marnocki (sic), and it may be synonymous with the latter." - TEL]

Schmidt, K.P. 1953. A checklist of North American amphibians and reptiles. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

_________. and T.F. Smith. 1944.  Amphibians and reptiles of the Big Bend region of Texas.  Field Mus. Nat. Hist. Zool. Ser. 29:75-96.  [Contains the type description of "Syrrhophus gaigae," spelled "Syrrophus" in this account.  "Closely allied to Syrrhopus marnockii, from which it is distinguished by smaller size, wider head, and vermiculate instead of spotted dorsal pattern. . . .  The new form is admittedly distinguished from marnockii by

only trivial characters; it is believed, however, that the differences noted characterize a well-isolated population, separated by some 250 miles from the range of marnockii, and that these differences indicate that a distinct form is in process of evolution.

"1 Named for Mrs. Helen T. Gaige, in order to associate her name with the herpetological exploration of the Chisos Mountains, in which she had a pioneer part." - TEL]

Wallace, J. Eric. 2005.  Eleutherodactylus (=Syrrhophus) guttilatus  (Cope, 1879). Spotted Chirping Frog. in Lannoo, Michael, ed., Amphibian Declines: the conservation status of United States species.  Berkeley: Univ. of Cal. Press, pp. 495-496. 

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 (sub)genus yet published, from notes made more than seventy years ago - TEL ]