Snake Fungal Disease in Colubridae Snakes in Connecticut, USA in 2015 and 2017.

Snake fungal disease (SFD), caused by the fungus Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola, is an emerging threat to wild snake populations in the US. Data regarding its distribution, prevalence, and population-level impacts are sparse, and more information is needed to better manage SFD in the wild. In this study, we captured 38 wild snakes of five species in Connecticut in the summers of 2015 and 2017. Skin lesions were biopsied and evaluated histologically for fungal dermatitis. At least one individual from each species was positive for SFD, and 48% of snakes sampled in 2015 and 39% of snakes sampled in 2017 were positive for SFD. A Dekay's brownsnake (Storeria dekayi dekayi) with SFD lesions, captured in the summer of 2017, extended the host range of the disease. Thus, SFD was present in wild Connecticut snakes in 2015 and 2017, which demonstrated a wide-spread distribution throughout the state.

Follow-up ecological studies for cryptic species discoveries: Decrypting the leopard frogs of the eastern U.S.

Cryptic species are a challenge for systematics, but their elucidation also may leave critical information gaps about the distribution, conservation status, and behavior of affected species. We use the leopard frogs of the eastern U.S. as a case study of this issue. We refined the known range of the recently described Rana kauffeldi, the Atlantic Coast Leopard Frog, relative to the region's two other leopard frog species, conducted assessments of conservation status, and improved methods for separating the three species using morphological field characters. We conducted over 2,000 call and visual surveys and took photographs of and tissue samples from hundreds of frogs. Genetic analysis supported a three-species taxonomy and provided determinations for 220 individual photographed frogs. Rana kauffeldi was confirmed in eight U.S. states, from North Carolina to southern Connecticut, hewing closely to the Atlantic Coastal Plain. It can be reliably differentiated in life from R. pipiens, and from R. sphenocephala 90% of the time, based on such characters as the femoral reticulum patterning, dorsal spot size and number, and presence of a snout spot. However, the only diagnostic character separating R. kauffeldi from R. sphenocephala remains the breeding call described in 2014. Based on our field study, museum specimens, and prior survey data, we suggest that R. kauffeldi has declined substantially in the northern part of its range, but is more secure in the core of its range. We also report, for the first time, apparent extirpations of R. pipiens from the southeastern portion of its range, previously overlooked because of confusion with R. kauffeldi. We conclude with a generalized ecological research agenda for cryptic species. For R. kauffeldi, needs include descriptions of earlier life stages, studies of niche partitioning with sympatric congeners and the potential for hybridization, and identification of conservation actions to prevent further declines.