Zoology Jottings: A Frog at Butrint in southern Albania: What was it?

Having fun with the archaeological web site at Butrint—Greek settlement, Roman metropolis, bishopric, Byzantine after which Venetian, however deserted within the late Center Ages—on the southern tip of Albania, better treats of a herpetological form have been in retailer. The flooded basements of the ruined buildings are residence to 2 of the three species of terrapin in Europe, the European Pond Terrapin (Emys orbicularis) and the Balkan Terrapin (Mauremys rivulata). In one other damage we noticed a frog—the frog proven within the {photograph}. On the time (April 2010) I seemed it up within the 2nd version of the Collins Area Information (2002 and 2004, London: Collins) and wrote it down as a Greek Marsh Frog, Rana balcanica, present in southern Albania, southern Macedonia, south-western Bulgaria and Greece. Nick Arnold, the e book’s creator, famous although that this species is also called Rana kurtmuelleri and ‘typically not considered distinct from Marsh Frog’, i.e. Rana ribibunda.

Frog photographed within the archaeological web site of Butrint, April 2010

Because the early 2000s the water frogs have been moved into their very own genus, Pelophylax. Subsequently the Marsh Frog turned Pelophylax ribibundus. The particular identify balcanica for the Greek Marsh Frog aka Balkan Water Frog has additionally gone in favour of P. kurtmuelleri as a result of P. balcanica was rapidly decided to be the identical species as that described by Gayda in 1940. Gayda’s identify had precedence. In keeping with the The Eponym Dictionary of Amphibians (Beolens, Watkins, Grayson, 2013, Exeter: Pelagic Publishing) nothing appears to be recognized of who Kurt Müller was besides that he collected the holotype in Albania in 1938.

However is P. kurtmuelleri a sound species, distinct from Marsh Frog, P. ribibundus? One group has contended that it isn’t, and seeing one member of that group was a important creator of the Area Information to the Amphibians & Reptiles of Britain and Europe (Speybroeck, Beukema, Bok van der Voort, London: Bloomsbury) which was revealed in 2016, it not shocking that the species shouldn’t be listed aside from to notice it had been lumped into Marsh Frog.

Nonetheless, actually, plenty of others have retained P. kurtmuelleri as a sound species. A key instance is the influential Amphibian Species of the World. That web site accommodates a really temporary abstract of, and a hyperlink to, every paper that has appeared on the species. For that cause, I’m not offering a listing of sources on the finish of this text.

I discover it very troublesome to determine on the idea of present proof who is true because the standing of the water frogs of south-east Europe and south-western Asia is each confused and complicated. Nonetheless, I’m disquieted by those that dismiss research aside from these obtained utilizing the restricted evaluation of mitochondrial DNA (on this explicit case they’re these lumping the Balkan Water Frog into Marsh Frog) whereas dismissing organic proof which may point out the Balkan Water Frog needs to be break up from Marsh Frog.

It was Schneider, Sinsch and Sofianidou in 1993 who proposed that their balcanicus, later recognised as kurtmuelleri, needs to be recognised as a species distinct from the extra northerly ribibundus. The grounds for the break up was organic proof: the mating calls of the 2 types have been totally different. That is a part of the abstract of their paper:

The mating name of the lake frogs from Thrace resembles in all parameters that of the Rana ribibunda within the terra typica restricta (Guryev, CIS). Accordingly the lake frogs of jap Greece belong to R. ridibunda. The mating name of those lake frogs consists of 20 pulses/pulse group and of seven pulse teams/name on the typical. Most of Greece is inhabited by the second taxon, Rana balcanica sp. n. [P. kurtmuelleri] Its mating name is characterised by 27 pulses/pulse group and 4 pulse teams/name on common.

Along with the evaluation of the mating calls, small however statistically vital variations have been evident in morphological options when the measurements they made have been subjected to discriminant evaluation.

One little bit of potential proof to recommend the Balkan Water Frog is a sound species was raised by Schneider and his colleagues. Within the early Eighties some work had been executed on crossing Marsh Frogs correct with water frogs from what was then southern Yugoslavia, which, they recommend, have been possibly, Balkan Water Frogs. The ensuing tadpoles had a excessive mortality and those who few that did survive to maturity, a low fertility, each indicative of hybridisation between two, reasonably than inside one, species.

General, as a ‘lumper’ I can see why the ‘splitters’ have a case in recognising the Balkan Water Frog, Pelophylax kurtmuelleri, as a species, regardless that much more analysis remains to be required.

However again to Butrint in 2010. Was the frog I photographed a Balkan Water Frog? There’s one other species of Pelophylax residing within the southern tip of Albania, the Epirus Water Frog, P. epeiroticus. Each species are extremely variable in look and hybrids between the 2 have been discovered. The Epirus Water Frog was solely described (by basically the identical group that described balcanica (kurtmuelleri)) in 1984. A gaggle of Slovakian and Czech zoologists have illustrated the variations in morphology and notably in coloration inside and between the species of water frogs that happen within the south-western Balkans. Trying on the images and studying the distinguishing options, it seems to me that the frog in my {photograph} (not splendid due to the reflections obscuring the tympanum) exhibits traits of the Balkan Water Frog, P. kurtmuelleri. The habitat preferences of the Epirus Water Frog (which is seemingly frequent on the perimeters of the close by Lake Butrint) given within the 2016 Area Information additionally point out that the flooded basement of an historic constructing usually are not more likely to be inhabited by P. epeiroticus. 

I assumed a second go to to Butrint, this time in 2017 and likewise in mid-April, would afford me one other have a look at the frogs inside the archaeological web site. The terrapins have been there however not a frog to be seen. The realm I had seen the frog in 2010 was almost dry however for one nook which had numerous massive tadpoles.