''Cochranella'' is a genus of

glass frog The glass frogs belong to the amphibian family Centrolenidae ( order Anura). While the general background coloration of most glass frogs is primarily lime green, the abdominal skin of some members of this family is transparent and translucent ...

s, family Centrolenidae. They are found in Central America from Honduras southward to the Amazonian and Andean cloud forests of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.

Etymology

The generic name ''Cochranella'' honors

Doris Mable Cochran Doris Mable Cochran (May 18, 1898 – May 22, 1968) was an American herpetologist and custodian of the American Natural Collection at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., for many years. Life Born in North Girard, Pennsylvania, she g ...

, an American herpetologist. Accordingly, common name Cochran frogs has been coined for the genus.

Taxonomy and systematics

''Cochranella'' was first described by

Edward Harrison Taylor Edward Harrison Taylor (April 23, 1889 – June 16, 1978) was an American herpetologist from Missouri. Family Taylor was born in Maysville, Missouri, to George and Loretta Taylor. He had an older brother, Eugene. Education Taylor studied at th ...

in 1951. The current delimitation of this genus follows from the work by Juan Manuel Guayasamin and his colleagues published in 2009 (with some later adjustments). These authors remedied the

polyphyly A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of converg ...

of the genus by partitioning it into several new genera. The diagnostic characteristics of the genus are the following: (1) humeral spines are absent (small spine present in ''C. litoralis''); (2) digestive tract is white (translucent in ''Cochranella nola'') and the lobed liver is covered by a transparent hepatic

peritoneum The peritoneum is the serous membrane forming the lining of the abdominal cavity or coelom in amniotes and some invertebrates, such as annelids. It covers most of the intra-abdominal (or coelomic) organs, and is composed of a layer of mesoth ...

; (3) ventral parietal peritoneum is white anteriorly and transparent posteriorly; (4) webbing between the fingers III–IV is moderate to extensive; (5) bones are green in life; (6) dorsum is lavender in preserved speciments; (7) dentigerous process of the

vomer The vomer (; lat, vomer, lit=ploughshare) is one of the unpaired facial bones of the skull. It is located in the midsagittal line, and articulates with the sphenoid, the ethmoid, the left and right palatine bones, and the left and right maxill ...

and vomerine teeth are present (absent in ''C. litoralis''); (8) males call from the upper surfaces of leaves and females deposit eggs on the upper sides of leaves along streams; (9)

quadratojugal bone The quadratojugal is a skull bone present in many vertebrates, including some living reptiles and amphibians. Anatomy and function In animals with a quadratojugal bone, it is typically found connected to the jugal (cheek) bone from the front and ...

is articulating with

maxilla The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The t ...

Species

Currently 11 species are placed in this genus: * ''

Cochranella erminea ''Cochranella'' is a genus of glass frogs, family Centrolenidae. They are found in Central America from Honduras southward to the Amazonian and Andean cloud forests of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. Etymology The generic name ''Cochran ...

'' Torres-Gastello, Suárez-Segovia, and Cisneros-Heredia, 2007 * ''

Cochranella euknemos ''Cochranella euknemos'', sometimes known as the San Jose Cochran frog, is a species of frog in the family Centrolenidae. It is found in central Costa Rica and south/eastward to Panama and to the western flank of the Cordillera Occidental in ...

'' (Savage and Starrett, 1967) * ''

Cochranella granulosa ''Cochranella granulosa'' (common name: grainy Cochran frog, in Spanish ''ranita de cristal'') is a species of frog in the family Centrolenidae. It is found in Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nica ...

'' (Taylor, 1949) * ''

Cochranella guayasamini ''Cochranella'' is a genus of glass frogs, family Centrolenidae. They are found in Central America from Honduras southward to the Amazonian and Andean cloud forests of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. Etymology The generic name ''Cochran ...

'' Twomey, Delia, and Castroviejo-Fisher, 2014 * '' Cochranella litoralis'' (Ruiz-Carranza and Lynch, 1996) * ''

Cochranella mache ''Cochranella mache'', also known as the Mache glassfrog or Mache Cochran frog, is a species of frogs in the family Centrolenidae. It is found in the lowland forest and eastern slopes of Cordillera Mache–Chindul in the Esmeraldas Province, nort ...

'' Guayasamin and Bonaccorso, 2004 * '' Cochranella nola'' Harvey, 1996 * '' Cochranella phryxa'' Aguayo-Vedia and Harvey, 2006 * '' Cochranella resplendens'' (Lynch and Duellman, 1973) The AmphibiaWeb lists 18 ''Cochranella'' species, including ones that the Amphibian Species of the World considers as having uncertain placement within the subfamily

Centroleninae Centroleninae is one of two subfamilies of the family Centrolenidae. It has nine genera distributed in Central America from Honduras south and east to northern and central South America. As of mid 2015, it contains 117 species. Taxonomy Centro ...

(''

Incertae Sedis ' () or ''problematica'' is a term used for a taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Alternatively, such groups are frequently referred to as "enigmatic taxa". In the system of open nomenclature, uncertainty ...

'').

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q868150 Glass frogs Amphibian genera Amphibians of Central America Amphibians of South America Taxa named by Edward Harrison Taylor