Balkan frog | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Amphibia |
Order: | Anura |
Family: | Ranidae |
Genus: | Pelophylax |
Species: | P. kurtmuelleri |
Binomial name | |
Pelophylax kurtmuelleri (Gayda, 1940) | |
Synonyms | |
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The Balkan frog (Pelophylax kurtmuelleri) also known as the Balkan water frog and Greek marsh frog) is a species of frog occurring in Greece and, to a lesser extent, in Albania, Montenegro, and Serbia. The species highly resembles Pelophylax ridibundus , from which it was only distinguished in 1991 by bio-acoustic analysis. The separation of the species is not unanimously accepted.
The average length is 72 mm for males, 78 mm for females. The back is green or occasionally brown, often with a light green stripe down the middle, and with darker spots irregularly distributed across the back. The tympanum is bronze or green surrounded by a darker color.
The species is found across Greece except in the northeastern corner, where P. ridibundus is found instead. In Western Greece it lives along with Pelophylax epeiroticus . It occurs from sea level up to 1000 m, though large populations are not found above 600 m. Small introduced populations live in Denmark, Poland and Italy.
The edible frog is a species of common European frog, also known as the common water frog or green frog.
The marsh frog is a species of water frog native to Europe and parts of western Asia.
The pool frog is a European frog in the family Ranidae. Its specific name was chosen by the Italian herpetologist Lorenzo Camerano in 1882, in order to honour his master Michele Lessona.
Pelophylax nigromaculatus, is a species of true frog found in East Asia, first described in 1861. This widespread and common frog has many common names, including dark-spotted frog, black-spotted pond frog, and black-spotted frog.
The Cretan frog is a species of frog in the family Ranidae. It is endemic to Greece.
Pelophylax demarchii is a species of frog in the family Ranidae. It is only known from its unspecific type locality, Eritrea. Its taxonomic status is unclear. Common name Eritrea pond frog has been coined for it.
The Epirus water frog is a species of frog in the family Ranidae. It is found in western Greece, including Kerkyra, and the southern areas of Albania. The species is collected from the wild for human consumption.
The Italian edible frog is a hybridogenic species in the true frog family Ranidae. These frogs are the offspring of P. bergeri and either P. ridibundus or the edible frog which is itself of hybrid origin.
The Sahara frog is a species of frog in the family Ranidae. It is native to Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Spanish North Africa, and Western Sahara; it has also been introduced to Gran Canaria. In French it is called grenouille verte d'Afrique du Nord, and in Spanish it is known as rana verde norteafricana.
The Albanian water frog is a species of true frog and is native to Albania and Montenegro. As its common name suggests, it prefers aquatic environments. The Albanian water frog is an endangered species and known populations are currently in decline. Significant threats to its habitat are presented by pollution and by drainage of wetlands, and a more direct threat is the aggressive collection of the species for commercial purposes.
Pelophylax is a genus of true frogs widespread in Eurasia, with a few species ranging into northern Africa. This genus was erected by Leopold Fitzinger in 1843 to accommodate the green frogs of the Old World, which he considered distinct from the brown pond frogs of Carl Linnaeus' genus Rana.
The marsh frog, a frog in the family Ranidae, is the largest frog native to Europe.
The fertile hybrids of European water frogs reproduce by hybridogenesis (hemiclonally). This means that during gametogenesis, they discard the genome of one of the parental species and produce gametes of the other parental species. The first parental genome is restored by fertilization of these gametes with gametes from the first species. In all-hybrid populations of the edible frog Pelophylax kl. esculentus, however, triploid hybrids provide this missing genome.
Leszek Berger was a Polish herpetologist and malacologist.
Pelophylax caralitanus, commonly known as the Anatolian frog or Beyşehir frog, is a species of frog in the family Ranidae. It is endemic to southern Turkey where it has a moderately large range and is considered near-threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.