''Pelophryne'', commonly known as flathead toads or dwarf toads, is a genus of true toads, family

Bufonidae {{Cat main, Toad This category contains both species commonly called toads, and the true toads from the family Bufonidae {{Cat main, Toad This category Category, plural categories, may refer to: Philosophy and general uses *Categorization, cat ...

. The genus occurs in the Philippines,

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and ea ...

, Malaya including

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

, and

Hainan Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...

(China). Molecular data suggest that ''Pelophryne'' is the

sister taxon In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

of '' Ansonia''.

Description and ecology

''Pelophryne'' are small, semi-

arboreal Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally, but others are exclusively arboreal. The habitats pose nu ...

toads. They can easily be recognized by the peculiar, fleshy web of their fingers and toes. The genus can be divided into two groups: one with rounded but not expanded finger tips, and the other with the tips of the fingers expanded into truncate discs. This morphological division is supported by molecular data. Where two ''Pelophryne'' species coexist, one species is small (<) and the other one is larger, about in snout–vent length. This is suggestive of resource partitioning. The

tadpole A tadpole is the larval stage in the biological life cycle of an amphibian. Most tadpoles are fully aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial. Tadpoles have some fish-like features that may not be found ...

s are specialized for rapid development in very small rain water pools. The eggs are relatively large, and the tadpoles appear to subsist the larval period on yolk. The tadpoles have a degenerate oral disk and lack a spiracle.

Species

The following species are recognized in the genus ''Pelophryne'': In addition, the AmphibiaWeb recognizes '' Pelophryne macrotis'' as distinct from '' Pelophryne guentheri''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2384871 Amphibian genera Amphibians of Asia Taxa named by Thomas Barbour