''Pseudacris'' (commonly known as the chorus frogs) is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...

s in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Hylidae Hylidae is a wide-ranging family of frogs commonly referred to as " tree frogs and their allies". However, the hylids include a diversity of frog species, many of which do not live in trees, but are terrestrial or semiaquatic. Taxonomy and ...

found in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

ranging from the Pacific coastline to the Atlantic. The name of the genus comes from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

''pseudes'' (false) and ''akris'' (

locust Locusts (derived from the Latin ''locusta'', locust or lobster) are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstances they b ...

), probably a reference to the repeated rasping trill of most chorus frogs, which is similar to that of the

insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...

. It could also mean ‘false '' Acris''’, distinguishing it from another frog genus.

Taxonomy

The species in this genus are disputed. Molecular genetic research shows little consistency due to hybridization between species, making taxonomic organization difficult. The number of

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

in this genus is controversial, but Frost ''et al.'' list 19 species (all shown here), and

AmphibiaWeb AmphibiaWeb is an American non-profit website that provides information about amphibians. It is run by a group of universities working with the California Academy of Sciences: San Francisco State University, the University of California, Berkeley ...

lists 17 species (''P. hypochondriaca'' and ''P. sierra'' are not recognized):

Distribution and habitat

Chorus frogs live anywhere in North America from southern Alaska to southern Baja California, and from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

References

External links

* eb application 2008. Berkeley, California
''Pseudacris''
AmphibiaWeb, available at http://amphibiaweb.org/. (Accessed: Apr 23, 2008). * taxo
''Pseudacris''
at http://www.eol.org. * Taxo
''Pseudacris''
at https://www.itis.gov/index.html. (Accessed: Apr 23, 2008). * Taxo
''Pseudacris''
at http://data.gbif.org/welcome.htm
Amphibians of North America Taxa named by Leopold Fitzinger {{Hylidae-stub