An adult specimen from Ripley County, Missouri. Photo by Suzanne L. Collins |
A new North American chorus frog has been discovered and officially described in the journal Zootaxa. Dubbed the "Cajun Chorus Frog" by its discoverer's, the small one-inch amphibian is known from western Mississippi, all of Louisiana and Arkansas, eastern Texas and Oklahoma, and extreme southern Missouri (Ripley County). It ranges to within a few miles of the Kansas border in eastern Oklahoma. The new species has a distinct call, distinct appearance, and is distinct genetically based on analysis of DNA evidence. The scientific name of this new chorus frog is Pseudacris fouquettei (pronounced Sue-Day- Kris, Foe-Kett-Tie), named for Martin J. Fouquette, a retired professor of biology at Arizona State University and well-known herpetologist, whose earlier research on these amphibians paved the way for those that followed.
The last new species of frog discovered in the United States was the Florida Bog Frog (Rana okaloosae), officially described as new to science in 1985 by Paul E. Moler.