An adult Cajun Chorus Frog. © Emily Lemmon.
An adult Cajun Chorus Frog. © Emily Lemmon.
AMPHIBIA (Amphibians) ANURA (Frogs) HYLIDAE (Treefrogs and Allies)

Cajun Chorus Frog
Pseudacris fouquettei Lemmon, Lemmon, Collins, Cannatella (2008)
sū-dā'-krĭs — fō-kĕt-ī


Conservation Status:

State: None

Federal: None
NatureServe State: SNA - Not Applicable
NatureServe National: N5 - Secure
NatureServe Global: G5 - Secure
CITES: None
Diagnosis:
Adult Cajun Chorus Frogs are light brown above with three darker brown stripes along the back. When stripes are not present there are typically three sets of dark spots forming rows along the back, or some individuals will be patternless except for leg markings. The back varies from light gray to tan with a slight pinkish hue. There may be gold flecking on the back. A bright iridescent white labial stripe extends beyond the eye to just behind the tympanum. The pupil is dark brown with a bronze-gold iris. There is also a wide reddish-brown stripe that extends laterally from the tip of the snout along the flank just anterior to the hindlimbs. Hindlimbs are tan to medium brown with dark brown transverse bars. Variation has been observed in the number (2-15) and intensity of the leg bars. The ventral surface is cream colored with occasional dark flecks and the throat is yellowish-brown.

Distribution:
The Cajun Chorus Frog is found throughout Louisiana, Arkansas, eastern Texas, eastern Oklahoma, western Mississippi, and into extreme southern Missouri. Moriarty et al. (2007) reported this species from Osage County, Oklahoma, at a locality 32 miles south of the Kansas border. It may ultimately be discovered in Kansas between Elgin and Caney.
(,   Museum Voucher) (,   Observation) (,   Literature Record) (,   iNat Record), (  Fossil)
Open icons are questionable records; Click on a marker to view details.
Full range depicted by light shaded red area. Export Google Earth (.kml)
  • Occurrence Summary:  
  • 0
    Records 
  • 0
    Museum Vouchers 
  • 0
    Other Observations 
Some county occurrences indicated below may be too imprecise to map above.
County Breakdown: County Name (# occurrences):


Natural History:
Primarily diurnal, they are active throughout their breeding season. Breeding generally occurs from February through May in Oklahoma and Arkansas. Breeding activity occurs from 4-21°C, typically after rainfall. Breeding and courtship usually occur in shallow temporary pools and flooded fields where there is emergent vegetation. Males sit concealed within the grasses to produce advertisement calls. The advertisement call of Pseudacris fouquettei generally resembles that of other chorus frogs. This call can be imitated by rubbing one's thumb along a stiff comb. P. fouquettei has a slower call rate and a longer call length than P. maculata.

Occurrence Activity:
Number of Unique Obervations (=days): 0; Range: 01 Jan to 01 Jan
Chorusing:

Audio recording by Keith Coleman.

Chorusing Phenology: The black outlined dots denote the Julian date (day of the year; 1 January = 1 to 31 December = 365) an observation was made. The thin red line depicts the range of dates between the beginning of the first, and end of the fourth quartile (excluding outliers; Tukey method). The thick light blue bar represents the second and third quartile (interquartile range; the middle 50% of all observations). Only one observation per Julian date is included in the graphs; so a date with multiple observations carries the same weight as a date with only one observation. The vertical bars correspond to the 12 months of the year; January through December.
Number of Unique Obervations: ; Range: ; Interquartile range: ;

Remarks:
Pseudacris fouquettei was previously regarded as part of a wide-ranging chorus frog complex. It was previously listed under Pseudacris feriarum or Pseudacris maculata in various parts of its distribution.

Bibliography:
1950 Smith, Hobart M. Handbook of Amphibians and Reptiles of Kansas. University of Kansas, Museum of Natural History, Miscellaneous Publication (2):336
The first modern herpetology of Kansas. Includes locality dot maps within individual species accounts. Reports 96 species from Kansas (table and text say 97 on p. 10) and 13 "probable but unverified" species and subspecies.
1953 Bellis, Edward D. The effects of temperature on the breeding calls of some Oklahoma Salientians. Thesis. University of Oklahoma, Norman. pp.
1957 Bellis, Edward D. The effects of temperature on salientian breeding calls. Copeia 1957(2):85-89
1974 Collins, Joseph T. Amphibians and Reptiles in Kansas University of Kansas Museum of Natural History Public Education Series (1):283 pp
Joseph T. Collins first Kansas herpetology. <Need to get species total and principal differences with previous 'version' (= Smith 1956)>
1982 Collins, Joseph T. Report to the Kansas Fish and Game Commission on the status of three amphibians in southeastern Kansas. Kansas Fish and Game Commission, Pratt. 57pp.
1982 Collins, Joseph T. Amphibians and Reptiles in Kansas. 2nd edition. University of Kansas Museum of Natural History Public Education Series (8):
Joseph T. Collins second Kansas herpetology. <Need to get species total and principal differences with previous 'version' (= Collins 1974)>
1984 Secor, Stephen M. and Charles C. Carpenter. Distribution maps of Oklahoma reptiles. Oklahoma Herpetological Society Special Publication (3):1-57
1991 Conant, Roger and Joseph T. Collins. Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America. 3rd ed. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts. pp.
1993 Collins, Joseph T. and Suzanne L. Collins. Amphibians and Reptiles in Kansas. Third Edition. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Lawrence. 397pp.
Joseph T. Collins third Kansas herpetology. <Need to get species total and principal differences with previous 'version' (= Collins 1982)>
1997 da Silva, Hlio Ricardo. Two character states new for Hylines and the taxonomy of the genus Pseudacris. Journal of Herpetology 31(4):609-613
1998 Conant, Roger and Joseph T. Collins. Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America. 3rd ed, expanded. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts. pp.
1998 Powell, Robert, Joseph T Collins, and Errol D Hooper Jr. A Key to Amphibians & Reptiles of the Continental United States and Canada. Univ Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. 131pp.
2002 Kingsbury, Bruce and Joanna Gibson. Habitat Management Guidelines for Amphibians and Reptiles of the Midwest. Publication of Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, Address not given. 152pp.
2005 Lannoo, Michael (Editor) Amphibian Declines: The Conservation Status of United States Species. University fo California Press, Berkeley. 1115pp.
2007 Moriarty-Lemmon, Emily. Patterns and Processes of Speciation in North American Chorus Frogs (Pseudacris). Dissertation. University of Texas, Austin. 304pp.
2008 Taggart, Travis W. KHS 2008 spring field trip. Journal of Kansas Herpetology (25):2-3
2008 Moriarty-Lemmon, Emily, Alan R. Lemmon, Joseph T. Collins, and David C. Cannatella. A new North American chorus frog species (Amphibia: Hylidae: Pseudacris) from the south-central United States. Zootaxa (1675):1-30
2010 Collins, Joseph T., Suzanne L. Collins, and Travis W. Taggart. Amphibians, Reptiles, and Turtles of Kansas Eagle Mountain Publishing., Provo, Utah. 400pp.
Joseph T. Collins fourth Kansas herpetology. <Need to get species total and principal differences with previous 'version' (= Collins 1993)>
2011 Taggart, Travis W. Kansas Herpetological Society 2011 spring field trip to be held in Chautauqua County. Journal of Kansas Herpetology (37):5-7
2012 Powell, Robert, Joseph T Collins, and Errol D Hooper Jr. Key to the Herpetofauna of the Continental United States and Canada: Second Edition, Revised and Updated. Univ Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. 152pp.
2013 Dodd, C. Kenneth. Frogs of the United States and Canada. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland. 982pp.
2016 Powell, Robert, Roger Conant, and Joseph T. Collins. Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston. 494pp.
2017 Taggart, Travis W. and J. Daren Riedle. A Pocket Guide to Kansas Amphibians, Turtles and Lizards. Great Plains Nature Center, Wichita, Kansas. 69pp.
2017 Crother, Brian I. (editor) Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding. Eighth edition. Herpetological Circulars (43):1-102
2019 Powell, Robert, Joseph T Collins, and Errol D Hooper Jr. Key to the Herpetofauna of the Continental United States and Canada. Third Edition. Univ Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. 192pp.
2020 Daniel, Richard E. and Brian S. Edmond. Atlas of Missouri Amphibians and Reptiles for 2019. Privately printed, Columbia, Missouri. 86pp.
2020 Banker, Sarah E., Alan R. Lemmon, Alyssa Bigelow Hassinger, Mysia Dye, Sean D. Holland, Michelle L. Kortyna, Oscar E. Ospina, Hannah Ralicki, and Emily Moriarty Lemmon. Hierarchical hybrid enrichment: Multitiered genomic data collection across evolutionary scales, with application to Chorus Frogs (Pseudacris). Systematic Biology 69(4):756-773
2023 Dodd, C. Kenneth. Frogs of the United States and Canada. Second Edition. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland. 1032pp.
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Travis W. Taggart © 1999-2025 — w/ Sternberg Museum of Natural History, Fort Hays State University