A record of alien Pelophylax species and widespread mitochondrial DNA transfer in Kaliningradskaya Oblast’ (the Baltic coast, Russia)

Alien fish, amphibian and reptile species in Romania and their invasive status: a review with new data

“…For some of these the collecting locality is not given (Marosi et al 2014), and another was identified by Plötner et al (2008) from the Sfântu Gheorghe arm of the Danube near Murighiol (Tulcea county), determined as P. ridibundus (see Plötner et al 2008, Appendix S1) and later as P. kurtmuelleri (Vucić et al 2018;see Litvinchuk et al 2020 -and here it is worth mentioning that the results differ from Plötner et al 2008 for one of the markers and in some of the specimens, which raises certain doubts with respect to the relevance of such analysis). Thus, P. kurtmuelleri (or its allelic markers, naturally encompassing at least part of the same polymorphism as P. ridibundus -i. e. not very specific -or derived from backcross hybridization with P. ridibundus) may be native, naturally spread in Eastern Europe, north of the "classic" areal (Herczeg et al 2016;Kolenda et al 2017;Litvinchuk et al 2020). Moreover, P. kurtmuelleri and P. ridibundus (and European Pelophylax bedriagae) are sometimes seen as biologically conspecific, with no reproductive barrier (Hotz et al 2013, on a molecular basis only) and sometimes as distinct, with P. kurtmuelleri -P. ridibundus F2 hybrids unviable and backcross individuals (F1 x parental species) sterile (Plötner et al 2010).…”

Genetic structure, morphological variation, and gametogenic peculiarities in water frogs ( Pelophylax ) from northeastern European Russia

“…cf. bedriagae was widely introduced to Italy, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Russia (Bellati et al., 2019; Dubey & Dufresnes, 2017; Dubey et al., 2014; Dufresnes et al., 2018; Hoffmann et al., 2015; Holsbeek et al., 2009, 2008, 2010; Litvinchuk et al, 2020; Lyapkov et al., 2018; Vershinin et al., 2019). Therefore, the detailed distribution of the species in the Russian Plain has not been elucidated.…”

Hidden in plain sight: novel molecular data reveal unexpected genetic diversity among paramphistome parasites (Digenea: Paramphistomoidea) of European water frogs

“…1 , Table 1 ) Trematodes were collected from 4 host species: P. esculentus ( n = 50) and P. ridibundus ( n = 72) in Slovakia, and P. epeiroticus (Schneider, Sofianidou & Kyriakopolou-Sklavounou, 1984) ( n = 30) and P. kurtmuelleri (Gayda, 1940) ( n = 9) in Greece and Albania, respectively. Although the latter 2 species have been considered as endemics of the Balkan Peninsula since description, haplotypes and alleles of P. kurtmuelleri have been recorded in several European countries in the last few decades (e.g., Dufresnes et al ., 2017 , 2018 ; Herczeg et al ., 2017 ; Kolenda et al ., 2017 ; Bellati et al ., 2019 and literature therein; Litvinchuk et al ., 2020 ). Water frog species were identified according to morphological traits (Günther, 1990 ; Plötner, 2005 ) and molecular markers – specifically, sequences of the mitochondrial ND2 fragment and microsatellites.…”