Extended Breeding of the Marsh Frog, Pelophylax Ridibundus

Home , Marsh frog, Pelophylax

HTTPS://JOURNALS.KU.EDU/REPTILESANDAMPHIBIANSTABLE OF CONTENTS IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANSREPTILES • VOL15, & N AMPHIBIANSO 4 • DEC 2008 •189 28(1):37–39 • APR 2021

IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS CONSERVATION AND NATURAL HISTORY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ExtendedFEATURE ARTICLES Breeding of the Marsh Frog, . Chasing Bullsnakes (Pituophis catenifer sayi) in Wisconsin: PelophylaxOn the Road to Understanding the Ecology ridibundus and Conservation of the Midwest’s Giant(Pallas Serpent ...... Joshua1771) M. Kapfer 190 . The Shared History of Treeboas (Corallus grenadensis) and Humans on Grenada: A Hypothetical Excursion ...... Robert W. Henderson 198 Mykola Drohvalenko RESEARCH ARTICLES Zoology and Animal Ecology Department, V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Svobody Square 4, Kharkiv, Ukraine ([email protected]) . The Texas Horned Lizard in Central and Western Texas ...... Emily Henry, Jason Brewer, Krista Mougey, and Gad Perry 204 . The Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) in Florida ...... Brian J. Camposano, Kenneth L. Krysko, Kevin M. Enge, Ellen M. Donlan, and Michael Granatosky 212

n temperate CONSERVATIONclimates, most anurans, ALERT triggered by rain- From 6–8 August 2020, along the shore and floodplains Ifall and rising .temperatures,World’s Mammals in breedCrisis ...... in the spring (e.g., of Khortytsia Island in...... the Dnipro 220River, Zaporizhzhia, Duellman and Trueb. More 1986);Than Mammals this ...... allows larvae to develop Ukraine (47.829°N, ...... 35.061°E – 47.795 223°N, 35.125°E), we . and metamorphose Thebefore “Dow Jonesthe Index”onset of Biodiversityof cooler ...... temperatures observed Marsh Frogs in both early...... and 225 late stages of larval in autumn. TheHUSBANDRY Marsh Frog (Pelophylax ridibundus), one of development (Fig. 1). We simultaneously observed froglets the most widely distributed. Captive Care Eurasian of the Central amphibians, Netted Dragon ...... is known to that had almost completed Shannon metamorphosis, Plummer 226 metamorphs in breed with somePROFILE minor variation from the beginning of April various stages of tail resorption, tadpoles in the middle stages through the beginning. Kraig of Adler: June. A Lifetime Development Promoting Herpetology begins ...... roughly of hindlimb development Michael(about L. Tregliastage 37;234 Gosner 1960), and a week after fertilization and normally requires two to three small larvae lacking hindlimb buds. Given the 2–3-month months (PysanetsCOMMENTARY 2014). Herein, we report some unusual time period required for development of waterfrogs, these . observations made duringThe Turtles the Have 2020 Been Watching breeding Me ...... season. observations are indicative ofEric anGangloff exceptionally 238 long breed- BOOK REVIEW . Threatened Amphibians of the World edited by S.N. Stuart, M. Hoffmann, J.S. Chanson, N.A. Cox, R. Berridge, P. Ramani, and B.E. Young ...... Robert Powell 243

 CONSERVATION RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Conservation Research Reports ...... 245  NATURAL HISTORY RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Reports on Natural History ...... 247  NEWBRIEFS ...... 248  EDITORIAL INFORMATION ...... 251  FOCUS ON CONSERVATION: A Project You Can Support ...... 252

Front Cover. Shannon Plummer. Back Cover. Michael Kern Totat et velleseque audant mo Totat et velleseque audant mo estibus inveliquo velique rerchil estibus inveliquo velique rerchil erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum fugiatis maionsequat eumque fugiatis maionsequat eumque moditia erere nonsedis ma sectiatur moditia erere nonsedis ma sectia- ma derrovitae voluptam, as quos tur ma derrovitae voluptam, as accullabo.

Fig. 1. Larval Marsh Frogs (Pelophylax ridibundus) at various stages of development found during a two-day period on Khortytsia Island, Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine: early-stage tadpole (A), mid-stage tadpole with hindlimbs (B), tadpole in early stage of metamorphosis (C), and metamorph (D). Photographs by Mykola Drohvalenko.

Copyright is held by the authors. Articles in R&A are made available under a 37 Reptiles & Amphibians ISSN 2332-4961 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. DROHVALENKO REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 28(1):37–39 • APR 2021 ing period lasting from May (for the largest tadpoles and the latest breeding activity, were found in floodplain chan- metamorphs) until late July (for the smallest larvae without nels south of Khortytsia Island, where the water should be hindlimb buds). We found additional indirect evidence for warmest. Late breeding seems to be relatively common and an abnormally long 2020 breeding season in a pond with a even winter activity has been reported in artificially heated hybridogenetic population system of both Pelophylax esculen- water, such as that close to power stations (Bogdan et al. tus (hemiclonal hybrids known as “Edible Frogs”) and P. ridi- 2011; Fominykh and Lyapkov 2012). However, late breeding bundus (Meleshko et al. 2014) in the Kharkiv Region of east- in natural bodies of water can lead to mortality of larvae that ern Ukraine, where we found a female P. esculentus on 3 July have not completed metamorphosis. Another climate-related 2020 still full of eggs, which subsequently were discharged in hypothesis looks at warm winters (Fig. 3). If too hot and too the laboratory. Also, on 28 September 2020, we found quite dry, frogs are unable to hibernate properly and require more young and very small froglets with unresorbed tail remnants of the subsequent spring to attain the necessary reproductive in a pond at the periphery of Kharkiv in the Zhychorets River fitness to breed successfully (Carey and Alexander 2003). In Valley. Also in Kharkiv, we had found the first already quite the case of the abnormally long breeding season in 2020, the large waterfrog tadpole of the 2020 season on 17 June 2020. driving force remains unclear and might be a combination of Any hypothesis attempting to explain such an unusually these and other factors. long breeding season raises even more questions. Slowing tad- The adaptive capacity of waterfrogs to withstand climatic pole growth can lead to the desynchronization of develop- changes has been investigated in only a few isolated ponds ment and can be driven by overcrowding within a relatively (e.g., Llorente et al. 2006) and in drought conditions (Todd small environment (Berger 2008). However, all of the obser- et al. 2011; Walls et al. 2013), neither of which is applicable vations reported herein occurred in a major river (Dnipro) to our study. As an invader in parts of Europe, the Marsh and its connecting floodplain channels. An examination of Frog has had an alarming impact on native amphibian popu- climatic conditions seems to provide more plausible answers. lations, disrupting native waterfrog communities and, in some May 2020 was relatively cold and humid (Fig. 2) with peri- regions, disturbing natural hybridogenetic population systems ods of cool rain. Such conditions could affect frog breeding (Leuenberger et al. 2014; Litvinchuk et al. 2020). The capac- behavior. Add relatively low water temperatures (near 15 °C), ity of P. ridibundus to adjust its reproductive phenology could which are at the lower limit of breeding preferences for these facilitate its invasion of new habitats and disruption of native frogs (Pysanets 2014), and behavioral and temporal shifts are anuran communities and, as such, deserves further investiga- hardly surprising. However, the smallest larvae, products of tion by the scientific community.

Fig. 2. Climatic conditions during May 2020. The color scale at the right Fig. 3. Climatic conditions during January 2020. The color scale at the of each map is based on the climatic index for May 2020 for reference right of each map is based on the climatic index for January 2020 for refer- period 1981–2010 (data ERA5). Stars mark the approximate location of ence period 1981–2010 (data ERA5). Stars mark the approximate location Khortytsia Island, Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. Copernicus Climate Change of Khortytsia Island, Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. Copernicus Climate Change Service C3S/ECMWF. Service C3S/ECMWF.

38 DROHVALENKO REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 28(1):37–39 • APR 2021

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