''Rana sauteri'' is a species of

true frog True frogs is the common name for the frog family Ranidae. They have the widest distribution of any frog family. They are abundant throughout most of the world, occurring on all continents except Antarctica. The true frogs are present in North A ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to Taiwan. It inhabits low-altitude hill forests and the associated streams. It is an

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...

threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

due to agriculture and infrastructure development.

Common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...

s recorded for ''Rana sauteri'' include Kanshirei Village frog, Taiwan groove-toed frog, Sauter's brown frog, and Taiwan pseudotorrent frog.

Taxonomy

''Rana sauteri'' was first described in 1909 by

George Albert Boulenger George Albert Boulenger (19 October 1858 – 23 November 1937) was a Belgian-British zoologist who described and gave scientific names to over 2,000 new animal species, chiefly fish, reptiles, and amphibians. Boulenger was also an active botani ...

on the basis of specimens collected on

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

by one H. Sauter. Boulenger noted resemblances to ''

Rana japonica The Japanese brown frog (''Rana japonica'') is a species of frog in the family Ranidae, endemic to Japan. Its natural habitats are temperate grassland, rivers, swamps, irrigated land, and seasonally flooded agricultural land. Characteristics De ...

'' and ''Rana mortenseni'' (now '' Hylarana mortenseni'') and thought the species bridged part of the gap between '' Hylorana'' (now spelled ''Hylarana'') and the ''

Rana temporaria The common frog or grass frog (''Rana temporaria''), also known as the European common frog, European common brown frog, European grass frog, European Holarctic true frog, European pond frog or European brown frog, is a semi-aquatic amphibian ...

'' group of species. In 1920, however, Boulenger placed the species in the

subgenus In biology, a subgenus (plural: subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between t ...

''Hylorana'' of the genus ''

Rana Rana may refer to: Astronomy * Rana (crater), a crater on Mars * Delta Eridani or Rana, a star People, groups and titles * Rana (name), a given name and surname (including a list of people and characters with the name) * Rana (title), a histori ...

''. In 1991, Fei and colleagues placed it in a new genus ''Pseudorana'' together with ''

Rana sangzhiensis ''Rana sangzhiensis'' is a species of frog in the family Ranidae, the "true frogs". It is endemic to China. It is known only from Mount Tianping, in Sangzhi County, Hunan (its type locality), and depending on the source, from Mount Dadong in L ...

'' and ''

Rana weiningensis ''Pseudorana weiningensis'' is a species of true frog endemic to China. It is the only species in the genus ''Pseudorana''. It is also known as the Weining frog or Weining groove-toed frog. Its natural habitats are temperate shrubland, temperat ...

'', and in 2000 they even placed it in a genus of its own, ''Pseudoamolops'', because they thought it was more closely related to ''

Amolops ''Amolops'' (commonly known as cascade frogs or sucker frogs) is a genus of true frogs (family Ranidae) native mainly to eastern and south-eastern Asia. These frogs are closely related to such genera as ''Huia'', ''Meristogenys'', ''Odorrana'' ...

'' frogs than to other species of ''Pseudorana''. However, molecular data place ''Rana sauteri'' well within the genus ''Rana'', particularly the ''Rana temporaria'' group, and in 2006 Frost and colleagues therefore placed ''Pseudoamolops sauteri'' back in ''Rana''. In 1921, Smith described ''Rana sauteri'' var. ''johnsi'' as a variety of ''Rana sauteri'' from Vietnam. This form, which also occurs in

Guangxi Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the People's Republic ...

(southern China), Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand, has been recognized as a separate species, ''

Rana johnsi Johns' groove-toed frog or Johns' frog (''Rana johnsi''), is a frog species in the true frog family (Ranidae). It is found in scattered locations in southern China and Vietnam and in the Khammouan Province of Laos, eastern Cambodia, and north-ce ...

'' (previously ''Pseudorana johnsi'') since 1999. In addition, high-altitude populations of ''Rana sauteri'' were recognized as a separate species, ''

Rana multidenticulata ''Rana sauteri'' is a species of true frog endemic to Taiwan. It inhabits low-altitude hill forests and the associated streams. It is an endangered species threatened by habitat loss due to agriculture and infrastructure development. Common names ...

'', in 1997.

Description

''Rana sauteri'' are medium-sized frogs: males grow to a snout–vent length of and females to . They have a slender body with brown, red brown or dark brown upper surface.

Conservation

There is currently a Sauter's frog conservation project in the Dashanbei area of Hengshan Township (橫山鄉),

Hsinchu County Hsinchu County (Wade–Giles: ''Hsin¹-chu²'') is a county in north-western Taiwan. The population of the county is mainly Hakka; with a Taiwanese aboriginal minority in the southeastern part of the county. Zhubei is the county capital, where ...

References

Literature cited

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External links

Photo in flickr (under name ''Pseudoamolops sauteri'')
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2246874 sauteri Amphibians of Taiwan Endemic fauna of Taiwan Amphibians described in 1909 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot