Hematology of the Levant Green Frog, Pelophylax bedriagae (Amphibia: Ranidae) in southern Iran

Abstract

In this study, 68 specimens of the Levant Green Frog, Pelophylax bedriagae, were collected from agricultural fields around Yasouj and Noor-Abad cities, from August 2018 to May 2019 in southern Iran to investigate the blood cell morphology. Blood specimens were taken from the heart, or abdominal and facial veins. Smears were dried in room temperature, fixed by methanol and stained using Giemsa method. Blood cells (erythrocytes and leucocytes) were counted and measured using light microscopy under an optical micrometer. Based on the findings of this study, erythrocytes from Noor-Abad population has significantly greater values from those in Yasouj population in all of the six metric characters (P < 0.05). RBC’s in male frogs are also greater than those in females in all six studied characters (P < 0.05). All studied metric characters in lymphocytes are also different between tow localities and sexes (P < 0.05).