Distribution:
Abundant throughout the eastern two-thirds of Kansas along the level muddy or gravel, sparsely vegetated, banks of streams, rivers, and impoundments. Historically, it was more widespread in the western two-thirds of Kansas, though largely confined to stream corridors. The lack of surface water due to decreased runoff (terracing and dams) and aquifer use (irrigation and municipal) has rendered extended stretches of these streams uninhabitable to this frog. Wright (1931) listed specimens from Emporia and Lawrence.
This species is missing from much of its former range in Colorado and Nebraska (Hammerson and Livo 1999; Lynch 1985; Fogell 2010; Ballinger et al. 2010).
(,   Museum Voucher) (,   Observation) (,   Literature Record) (,   iNat Record), (  Fossil)
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Full range depicted by light shaded red area. Export Google Earth (.kml)

• Occurrence Summary:  
• 9,003
  Records 
• 6,908
  Museum Vouchers 
• 2,095
  Other Observations 

Some county occurrences indicated below may be too imprecise to map above.
County Breakdown: County Name (# occurrences):
Allen (96); Anderson (8); Atchison (17); Barber (74); Barton (66); Bourbon (57); Brown (80); Butler (81); Chase (234); Chautauqua (56); Cherokee (494); Cheyenne (8); Clark (10); Clay (30); Cloud (28); Coffey (173); Comanche (45); Cowley (134); Crawford (424); Decatur (3); Dickinson (102); Doniphan (11); Douglas (2205); Elk (39); Ellis (233); Ellsworth (36); Finney (11); Ford (1); Franklin (68); Geary (34); Gove (11); Graham (19); Grant (1); Greeley (1); Greenwood (111); Harper (72); Harvey (80); Hodgeman (2); Jackson (85); Jefferson (32); Jewell (19); Johnson (292); Kingman (46); Kiowa (22); Labette (109); Lane (3); Leavenworth (129); Lincoln (8); Linn (71); Logan (9); Lyon (26); Marion (72); Marshall (32); McPherson (74); Meade (28); Miami (161); Mitchell (12); Montgomery (186); Morris (5); Morton (2); Nemaha (36); Neosho (32); Norton (8); Osage (45); Osborne (11); Ottawa (5); Pawnee (12); Phillips (11); Pottawatomie (192); Pratt (15); Reno (68); Republic (5); Rice (16); Riley (195); Rooks (80); Rush (3); Russell (88); Saline (71); Scott (22); Sedgwick (300); Shawnee (93); Sheridan (25); Sherman (16); Smith (7); Stafford (8); Sumner (104); Trego (25); Unknown (22); Wabaunsee (418); Wallace (340); Washington (32); Wichita (1); Wilson (50); Woodson (46); Wyandotte (23);

Fossil History:
Pleistocene fossils are known from Rice, Ellsworth, and Meade counties.
Fossils from the Williams Local Fauna of Rice County (Pleistocene: Illinoian) (Preston 1979, Holman 1984; Holman 1995) are assignable to this taxon.Fossils from the Kanopolis Local Fauna of Ellsworth County (Pleistocene: Rancholabrean I) (Preston 1979, Holman 1972, Holman 1984; Holman 1995) are assignable to this taxon.
Fossils from the Mount Scott Local Fauna of Meade County (Pleistocene: Illinoian) (Preston 1979, Holman 1987; Holman 1995) are assignable to this taxon.
Fossils from the Butler Spring Local Fauna of Meade County (Pleistocene: Illinoian) (Tihen 1962; Preston 1979; Holman 1995) are assignable to this taxon.

Natural History:
Burkett (1969) studied this species in northeastern Kansas. He determined that its activity period is from March to November but noted that a few warm days would cause it to be active during most winter months. During the colder months this creature is generally active only during the day, but as the months become warmer it becomes active day and night. Heinrich and Kaufman (1985) found this frog active on the Konza Prairie from 29 April to 15 October. Dillenbeck (1988) seined up a Blanchard's Cricket Frog from a small stream in Douglas County on 31 January at an air temperature of 4.4°C (40°F). Taggart (1992) found a single example of this frog active by day along Shoal Creek in Cherokee County on 1 January at an air temperature of 8.3°C (47°F); the water was 0.0°C (32°F).
The preferred habitat of this species (Burkett, 1969) is muddy, beach-like edges of small, shallow streams and ponds. He observed that this frog avoided deep water. Irwin (1980) found a single adult of this species near the twilight zone of a cave in Cherokee County in late December. The Blanchard's Cricket Frog evidently wanders great distances from water during both dry and wet weather, and Fitch (1958) stated that many die during these wanderings, keeping populations at an optimal level. Apparently, this amphibian has a preferred air temperature range of 27.8-30.6°C (82-87°F) (Fitch, 1958), although Clarke (1958) found this frog active in Osage County from February to November at air temperatures ranging from 5.6° to 37.8°C (42° to 100°F).
Blanchard's Cricket Frogs congregate to breed from April to July around lakes, ponds, marshes, roadside ditches, rain pools, springs, and streams. Warm temperatures are necessary to stimulate chorusing. The male choruses, attracts a female, and mounts her back, clasping her behind the front limbs with his front legs. The female lays eggs and the male fertilizes them in the water. Each female may lay up to 400 eggs, deposited singly or in small clusters of 2-7 eggs each. Burkett (1969) removed an average of 323 eggs from three female frogs. W. L. Gorman (pers. comm., 1980; Collins, 1993) reported actual egg clutches averaging 170 in six female frogs from Douglas County. The eggs hatch after 3-4 days into tiny, solitary, secretive tadpoles. The tadpoles metamorphose within five to ten weeks. Chorusing does not always indicate that egg-laying is taking or will take place. This frog evidently maintains choruses for other, unknown, reasons. Burkett (1969) speculated that females may lay eggs twice during each spring-summer season, because he found egg-laden females from mid-April to mid-July. Irwin and Collins (1987) reported choruses of Blanchard's Cricket Frogs from 1 May to 5 June at Cheyenne Bottoms in Barton County; after a heavy rain on 23 June, this species resumed chorusing at that site.
After metamorphosing, the young of this species undergo two distinct periods of growth: a juvenile growth period immediately after metamorphosis from July to September (followed by a period of little growth during winter due to low temperatures and a scarcity of food) and a second growth period to adult size from March until the coming breeding season, when the presence of food and temperatures approach an optimum.Hartman (1906) examined the stomachs of seven Kansas specimens of this species and found insects, a spider, and a small crayfish. Jameson (1947) examined the stomach contents of 67 Blanchard's Cricket Frogs from Douglas County and found larvae of water beetles, small spiders, midges, flies, and water-boatmen. Based on the presence of bottom-dwelling aquatic insects found in the stomachs of these frogs, he felt they fed both underwater and on the surface.
Shirer and Fitch (1970) reported that raccoons, striped skunks, and opossums probably prey on Blanchard's Cricket Frogs around ponds. Caldwell (1982) reported that tadpoles of this frog in Kansas exhibited two types of tail coloration. Tadpoles found in ponds have primarily black tail tips; those in lakes and creeks have mostly plain tails. The tadpoles with black tail tips coincide with a high density of predatory dragonfly larvae and , in this situation, the black tail functions to direct attacks of the dragonfly larvae toward the tail and away from the more vulnerable head and body of the tadpole. Because the main predators of tadpoles in lakes and creeks are fishes, which swallow their prey whole, it is more adaptive for the Blanchard's Cricket Frog tadpoles in this habitat to have plain tails, thus making them more difficult for predators to observe.

Occurrence Activity:
Number of Unique Obervations (=days): 279; Range: 02 Jan to 23 Dec

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: 1478; Range: 20 Mar to 30 Jul; Interquartile range: 02 May to 18 Jun;

Remarks:
The Blanchard's Cricket Frog was first reported in Kansas by Cragin (1880). The earliest extant specimen (MCZ 2042) was collected "near Manhattan Kan" by Francis Cragin and received by the MCZ around 1879 (see also Moriarty and Collins, 1995).
Historic populations need to be re-assessed in the western quarter of Kansas.
Based on a captive specimen, Snider and Bowler (1992) reported a maximum longevity for this frog of four years, eleven months, and 25 days.