Lithobates sphenocephalus utricularius
(Harlan, 1825)
St. Louis Co., Missouri. Summer 1974.
There used to be a little backwater pond, a few hundred feet from the Mississippi River, that was full of these frogs (there’s a casino there now). As a kid it was great fun to try to catch them among the cattails and arrowhead plants, while getting your sneakers stuck in the stinking river mud. They were a tough capture, seeing you before you saw them most of the time, and bouncing away. The two frogs pictured here are from southern Illinois.
My Flickr album for this species is here.
HerpMapper records for this species are here.
