''Lithobates'' is a genus of true frogs, of the family Ranidae. The name is derived from '' litho-'' (stone) and the Greek ' (, one that treads), meaning one that treads on rock, or rock climber. The name was defined by Hillis and Wilcox (2005) for a subgenus of four

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

and South American frogs within 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 ...

''. The subgenus was subsequently expanded to seven species in Central and South America in a systematic revision of the genus ''Rana''. The name was previously used by Frost ''et al.'' as a separate genus of ranid frogs that included most of the North American frogs traditionally included in the genus ''Rana'',Frost, Darrel R. (2006): Amphibian Species of the World Version 3
Petropedetidae Noble, 1931
American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA. Retrieved 2006-AUG-05., Frost, Darrel R. et al. (2006): The amphibian tree of life. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. Number 297. New York. including the

American bullfrog The American bullfrog (''Lithobates catesbeianus''), often simply known as the bullfrog in Canada and the United States, is a large true frog native to eastern North America. It typically inhabits large permanent water bodies such as swamps, po ...

and northern leopard frog. Frost used the name in this sense in the frog section of a North American common names list edited by Crother (2008). This proposed change has since been rejected by others, such as Stuart (2008), Pauly et al. (2009), AmphibiaWeb,AmphibiaWeb: Information on amphibian biology and conservation. eb application 2012. Berkeley, California
''Rana''
/ref> and Yuan et al. (2016). AmphibiaWeb, available at http://amphibiaweb.org/, an online compendium of amphibian names, follows Yuan et al. (2016) in recognizing ''Lithobates'' as a subgenus. On the other hand, ''Amphibian Species of the World'' 6.0, an online reference, uses ''Lithobates'' as a genus. This definition is also followed by, e.g., the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the

Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles The Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles (SSAR) is an international herpetological society. It is a non-profit organization supporting education, conservation, and research related to reptiles and amphibians. Regular publications in ...

Species

These species are recognised in the genus ''Lithobates'': Alternatively, if ''Lithobates'' is treated as a

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 ...

(neotropical true frogs), then this narrower definition would contain the following species:

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2047738 True frogs Amphibian genera Amphibians of North America Amphibians of Central America Amphibians of South America Taxa named by Leopold Fitzinger