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Northern crawfish frog

Lithobates areolatus · Frogs and toads · Amphibians

Northern crawfish frog (Lithobates areolatus): Stubby frog with dorsolateral ridges and dark rounded dorsal spots with light borders; throat and belly mostly unspotted. Usually 5.7-7.5 cm snout-vent (up to 9.2 cm per ADW); yellow on the groin and thigh; males may show yellow on the dorsolateral ridges. This profile does not establish whether taking it is legal anywhere.

Check rules for a place and date

Certified rules currently represented in Hunt: coverage in development. This is coverage, not a legal answer.

Scientific name
Lithobates areolatus
Family
Ranidae
In North America
Native
Range
Northern Mississippi, northern Louisiana and eastern Texas north through Oklahoma, Arkansas, western Tennessee and Kentucky to eastern Kansas, southern Illinois and Indiana (formerly southern Iowa).
Biology

How to identify it

Stubby frog with dorsolateral ridges and dark rounded dorsal spots with light borders; throat and belly mostly unspotted. [1][2]

Usually 5.7-7.5 cm snout-vent (up to 9.2 cm per ADW); yellow on the groin and thigh; males may show yellow on the dorsolateral ridges. [1][2]

Call: low-pitched snore-like 'wurr-r-r-up' audible about 800 m away. [1][2]

Compared with the gopher frog: Gopher frog (Rana capito) has a pigmented belly and lacks the light borders around the dark dorsal spots. [1][2]

Field notes

  • Identification Confirm a northern crawfish frog before you act. Compared with the gopher frog: Gopher frog (Rana capito) has a pigmented belly and lacks the light borders around the dark dorsal spots.[1][2]
Field knowledge

Where it lives

Moist meadows, pastures, flood plains and tall-grass prairie where crayfish burrows exist; breeds in flooded fields, ditches, farm ponds, usually fishless temporary water. [1][2]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Lives in crayfish or rodent burrows; sits at the burrow mouth or on its platform to feed and retreats headfirst. [1][2]

Migrates up to several hundred metres, occasionally a mile or more, between burrow and breeding pools; inactive in winter in the north. [1][2]

Males call at night in choruses in warm weather; eats moths, ants, spiders, grasshoppers, beetles and crickets. [1][2]

Regulatory handoff

Limited legal take

Legal take of this species exists only under narrow conditions — a quota, a draw, a permit, a small area, or animals released or held on private land — set by the authorities below. Nowhere else is a legal opportunity implied, and Hunt shows one only where a certified rule establishes it.

Where legal take is listed

Being listed is not an open season. Seasons, zones, licences, methods and limits decide whether this animal may be taken on a given day and place — check Hunt or the authority before you go. Listings read 2026-09-30.

Geospatial intelligence

Where it is found

Northern Mississippi, northern Louisiana and eastern Texas north through Oklahoma, Arkansas, western Tennessee and Kentucky to eastern Kansas, southern Illinois and Indiana (formerly southern Iowa).

Biology

Sources

Every claim above is attributed to one of these published sources.

  1. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe

  2. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology · reviewed 2026-09-30

    University of Michigan Museum of Zoology