O.K. Tiffany. You done good. The frog in your pictures is the species of the
genus Rana that would be expected in the Puyallup vicinity, Rana aurora, the
Northern Red-legged Frog. Northern Red-legged Frogs have a patch of
multi-colored mottling in the groin, where the hind legs join the abdomen,
on the side. Your frog shows such a patch of mottling. The underlegs are
interesting, definitely pinkish or reddish but appearing as those
translucent skin is allowing the coloration of the underlying musculature to
show through. Still, Cascades Frogs would show full coloring with yellow
skin pigments on the underlegs. Your frog shows some yellowish pigmentation
in patches on the fore-edges of the thighs. So, I think this frog is a
relatively typical Northern Red-legged Frog. It has fairly large black spots
on the back, somewhat similar to the inky black, distinct-margined spots of
a Cascades Frog but still within the range of variation in Northern
Red-legged Frogs. The first frog you photographed and shared with the group
seemed to have inky black spots even more typical of the Cascades Frog.
However, I think it too was almost certainly a Northern Red-legged Frog.

I just got home from nearly a week camping near the upper Nisqually River. I
caught a Cascades Frog along the river, at about 1,500 foot elevation,
probably the lowest elevation I've ever seen this species. I took a bunch of
picture of him. He had almost no inky black spots but had all of the other
characteristics of the species. The Rana are a rather tough group to tease
apart but it can be done reliably with multiple cues.

Kelly McAllister
Olympia, Washington

-----Original Message-----
From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Tiffany
Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2012 7:05 AM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] Re: off topic - frog id question - more photos

Hi Tweeters,
First thanks for everyone who responded last week. I had to go back to try
to figure out the id of the frog.
Yesterday I finally got a chance to catch one of the frogs (there were at
least 2 that I saw). (Catching one was quite an adventure in itself, wading
in a mucky bottom pond trying to chase a little frog around without
falling.) But I was successful in catching one. I took more hopefully
diagnostic photos, which can be seen here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=100490373029186505229&target=AL
BUM&id=5775782339046538417&authkey=Gv1sRgCMn7vaagwrDD3gE&feat=email
No idea how these frogs got here, but they are very cool to find!

Tiffany Linbo
Mountlake Terrace, WA

On 8/6/12 9:26 PM, Tiffany wrote:
> For any frog-o-phile, I have an identification question of a frog I
> found over the weekend. It is in a pond that my father-in-law created
> on his farm in Puyallup. While I have seen many Pacific Treefrogs on
> his farm, this is the first time I've seen this frog there. Here's a
> link to a picture.
> http://linboblueberries.com/images/rana.jpg
> Any ideas?
> Thanks!
>
> Tiffany Linbo
> Mountlake Terrace, WA

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