Lithobates blairi
(Mecham, Littlejohn, Oldham, Brown, and Brown, 1973)
St. Louis Co., Missouri. Summer 1975
How to tell a plains leopard frog? Look to the dorsolateral fold, the upraised ridge running from the eye to the back legs. Near the legs, the fold is interrupted and inset medially, away from the legs; sometimes it is broken into two lines. Northern and Southern Leopard Frogs have an uninterrupted dorsolateral fold. Lithobates blairi also features spots on the nose above the eyes, while other species have plain noses. These are frogs of open fields and prairies, sometimes found quite a distance from water, such as the frog in the top photo, found near the top of a hill in Missouri.
My Flickr album for this species is here.
HerpMapper records for this species are here.
