The name was defined by Hillis and Wilcox (2005) for a subgenus of four
Central and
South American frogs within the genus
Rana. The subgenus was subsequently expanded to seven species in Central and South America in a systematic revision of the genus
Rana. The name was previously used by Frost
et al. as a separate genus of ranid frogs that included most of the North American frogs traditionally included in the genus
Rana, including the
American bullfrog and
northern leopard frog. Frost used the name in this sense in the frog section of a North American common names list edited by Crother (2008). This proposed change has since been rejected by others, such as Stuart (2008), Pauly et al. (2009), AmphibiaWeb, and Yuan et al. (2016). AmphibiaWeb, available at http://amphibiaweb.org/, an online compendium of amphibian names, follows Yuan et al. (2016) in recognizing
Lithobates as a subgenus. On the other hand,
Amphibian Species of the World 6.0, an online reference, uses
Lithobates as a genus. This definition is also followed by, e.g., the
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the
Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. The earliest known members of this genus are known from the
Early Miocene of
Florida, and appear to belong to the leopard frog species complex. ==Species==