Distribution, habitat, and zoogeography of Distribution, habitat, and zoogeography of the plains leopard frog (Rana blairi) in Illinois distributionhabi136brow Year: 1990 Mav 1990 Brown and Morris: Plains Leopard Frog (Rana btairi) Rana blairi is not panmictic in Illinois, and we have not found it to be abundant at any localit\' in spite of the large number of distributional records (greater than for any other state). Insufficient appropriate habitat (see the following section, Habitat) probably is responsible for this lack of abundance. In contrast, FL sphenocephala is nimierous at many loc
Distribution, habitat, and zoogeography of Distribution, habitat, and zoogeography of the plains leopard frog (Rana blairi) in Illinois distributionhabi136brow Year: 1990 Mav 1990 Brown and Morris: Plains Leopard Frog (Rana btairi) Rana blairi is not panmictic in Illinois, and we have not found it to be abundant at any localit\' in spite of the large number of distributional records (greater than for any other state). Insufficient appropriate habitat (see the following section, Habitat) probably is responsible for this lack of abundance. In contrast, FL sphenocephala is nimierous at many localities in south- ern Illinois where much of the environment is consid- erably less disturbed by humans. Along the northern edge of its range in Illinois, Rana blairi is sympatric at some localities with R. pipims. Sympatrv' appears to be more extensive between R. blairi and R. sphenocephala than between R. blairi and R. pipiens. Rana blairi and R. sphenocephala occur together along the Illinois River in west-central Illinois, along the Mississippi River in southern Illinois, and at some localities along the southern edge of the range of/{. blairi in central and eastern Illinois. Habitat Breeding sites that we found to be commonly utilized by Rana blairi in Illinois included roadside and drain- age ditches, marshes, rain pools, flooded areas, farm ponds, and sometimes lakes. Some sites were ephem- eral, and all were lentic. Outside the breeding season we found individuals near the breeding sites as well as on bottomlands, along creeks, in old fields, and in variable habitats that often showed past disturbance (nonagricultural) by humans. We never found R. blairi a great distance from water. Two major types of environments in Illinois apparently are not occupied by the species. We never encountered the frog in mature upland forests or in tillable fields (, corn, soybeans). One of us () has carried out a number of herpetological surveys for the Illinois Department of Tr
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