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A New Distribution Record for the Invasive American Bullfrog, Lithobates catesbeianus Shaw 1802) (Anura: Ranidae), from Eastern Ecuador

Abstract:

Young et al. 2001; Collins and Storfer 2003), and the introduction of alien species is second only to habitat loss as a cause (Vitousek et al. 1997). Casas et al.(2001) identified the American Bullfrog, Lithobates catesbeianus (Shaw 1802), as one of the worst invasive species in many regions. It has a wide natural distribution in North America, ranging from Nova Scotia, Canada, south to central Florida and west to the Great Plains of the United States (Powell et al. 2016). Introduced populations are in other US states and in many other countries, including Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Spain, Peru, Puerto Rico, the Canary Islands, Singapore, and Taiwan (eg, Lever 2003; Kraus 2009). In South American, introduced populations are known from several localities in the Amazonian lowlands of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil (Rodriguez and Linares 2001; Batista 2002; Mazzoni et al. 2003; Hanselmann et al. 2004; Sanabria et al. 2005; Ghirardi et al. 2011). In Amazonian Ecuador, Cisneros-Heredia (2004) reported an apparently established population of this alien species from Napo Province and additional observations of escaped American Bullfrogs from Manabí Province. Cobos Cobos et al.(2015) documented another apparently well-established population in Loja Province. Expeditions conducted by the Universidad Nacional de Loja (LOUNAZ) across the southeastern Andean slopes of Ecuador detected a third established feral population of American Bullfrogs in the country. We saw and heard many individuals in artificial lagoons adjacent to cattle pastures (Fig. 1). The …