Lithobates

The name was defined by Hillis and Wilcox (2005) for a subgenus of four Central and South American frogs within the genus Rana.^[4][5] The subgenus was subsequently expanded to seven species in Central and South America in a systematic revision of the genus Rana.^[6] The name was previously used by Frost et al. as a separate genus of ranid frogs that included most of the North American frogs traditionally included in the genus Rana,^[7] including the American bullfrog and northern leopard frog. Frost used the name in this sense in the frog section of a North American common names list edited by Crother (2008).^[8] This proposed change has since been rejected by others, such as Stuart (2008),^[9] Pauly et al. (2009),^[10] AmphibiaWeb,^[11] and Yuan et al. (2016).^[6] AmphibiaWeb, available at http://amphibiaweb.org/, an online compendium of amphibian names, follows Yuan et al. (2016) in recognizing Lithobates as a subgenus.^[6] On the other hand, Amphibian Species of the World 6.0, an online reference, uses Lithobates as a genus.^[1] This definition is also followed by, e.g., the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)^[12] and the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles.^[13]

The earliest known members of this genus are known from the Early Miocene of Florida, and appear to belong to the leopard frog species complex.^[14]