Geographic distribution. Rana bedriagae

Abstract

RANA BEDRIAGAE (Bedriaga's Frog). MALTA: GOZO ISLAND: L-Ghadira ta' Sarraflu (36°02'3"N; 14°12'2"E). 500 m elev. 5 September 2004. Jonathan Abela, Nimrod Mifsud, Esther Schembri, Arnold Sciberras, and Jeffery Sciberras. National Museum of Natural History, Mdina, Malta (NMNHM ANOI105). Verified by Ulrich Sinsch, Universitat Bonn (on the basis of color photographs and recordings of advertisement calls). Introduced to the Maltese Islands, where Discoglossus pictus pictus is the only native amphibian (Baldacchino and Schembri 2002. Amfibji, Rettili, u Mammiferi fil-gzejjer Maltin. I1-Pjeta, Pubblikazzjonijiet Indipendenza, xii + 256 pp., Malta; Lanza 1972. Lav. Soc. Ital. Biogeogr. N. Ser., 3:755-804). Calls were first heard from the permanent freshwater pool at Ta' Sarraflu in April 2000, when approximately six individuals were calling. Individuals were first seen on 27 May 2004. Since then, choruses of at least 50 frogs have been heard around the pool. Eggs, tadpoles, and froglets were seen there, indicating successful reproduction. Choruses are now heard at two other localities on Gozo Island, indicating that the species is spreading.