THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY
Loading taxon account
Retrieving account information and occurrence data...

Amphibia    Anura    Hylidae  

Lowland Burrowing Treefrog
Smilisca fodiens (Boulenger, 1882)
SMY-lis-kah — FOH-dee-enz

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.

(,   Museum Voucher) (,   Observation) (,   Literature Record), (,   Citizen Science), (  Fossil)
Open icons indicate questionable records, including those with coordinate uncertainty greater than 10,000 m (approximately 6 miles); click a marker to view record details.
Occurrences:; 2,375 Total; 2,209 Museum; 166 Other
The locality database contains 8,049,983 records, and geographic and taxonomic errors exist. Click a marker to display its metadata. Logged-in, registered users may report a potential issue directly from the marker popup.
Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH. - (Version: 2023.09.20.16.14.36)
Download map data (GeoJSON):
Polygon Range File Museum Literature Fossil Personal Observation Citizen Science

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Arizona

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for its digging behavior and distinct jaw.
Smilisca — From Greek smilē (σμίλη), “chisel,” or smilax (σμίλαξ), possibly alluding to a cutting tool, and -iscus, a Latinized diminutive. The name may refer to a structure of the jaw or snout, though its exact reference is somewhat obscure.
fodiens — From Latin fodio, “to dig.” The present participle fodiens means “digging” or “burrowing,” referring to the frog’s fossorial habits.

First instance(s) of published English names:
No historic English names have been assigned to this taxon yet.

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
Amphibian Species of the World
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1882 Boulenger, George A. Catalogue of the Batrachia Salientia s. Ecaudata in the Collection of the British Museum. Second Edition. Taylor and Francis, London. pp.
1882 Boulenger, George A. Description of a new genus and species of frogs of the family Hylidae. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Series 5 10:326–328
1957 Chrapliwy, Pete S. and Kenneth L. Williams. A species of frog new to the fauna of the United States: Pternohyla fodiens Boulenger. Natural History Miscellanea (160):1-2
1969 Trueb, Linda. Pternohyla, P. dentata, P. fodiens.. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (77):1-4
1996 Sullivan, Brian K., Robert W. Bowker, Keith B. Halmos, and Erik W. A. Gergus. Arizona distribution of three Sonoran Desert anurans: Bufo retiformis, Gastrophryne olivacea, and Pternohyla fodiens. Great Basin Naturalist 56(1):38-47
2005 Faivovich, J., C. F. B. Haddad, P. C. de A. Garcia, D. R. Frost, J. A. Campbell, and W. C. Wheeler. Systematic review of the frog family Hylidae, with special reference to Hylinae: A phylogenetic analysis and taxonomic revision. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History (294):1–240
2005 Enderson, Erik F. and Robert L. Bezy. Amphibians of the Vekol Valley. Sonoran Herpetologist 18(7):74-79

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Monday 10 August 2026 04:00 CT