''Theloderma'', the bug-eyed frogs, mossy frogs or warty frogs,
is a genus of
frog
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...
s in the family
Rhacophoridae
The Rhacophoridae are a family of frogs that occur in tropical sub-Saharan Africa, South India and Sri Lanka, Japan, northeastern India to eastern China and Taiwan, south through the Philippines and Greater Sundas, and Sulawesi. They are commonly ...
,
subfamily
In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...
Rhacophorinae.
[ They are found from northeastern India and southern China, through Southeast Asia, to the ]Greater Sunda Islands
The Greater Sunda Islands (Indonesian and Malay: ''Kepulauan Sunda Besar'') are four tropical islands situated within Indonesian Archipelago, in the Pacific Ocean. The islands, Borneo, Java, Sulawesi and Sumatra, are internationally recognised fo ...
; the highest species richness
Species richness is the number of different species represented in an ecological community, landscape or region. Species richness is simply a count of species, and it does not take into account the abundances of the species or their relative a ...
is in Indochina
Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...
.[
They are medium to small-sized frogs with maximum ]snout–vent length
Snout–vent length (SVL) is a morphometric measurement taken in herpetology from the tip of the snout to the most posterior opening of the cloacal slit (vent)."direct line distance from tip of snout to posterior margin of vent" It is the most c ...
s that range from depending on species, and their skin can be smooth, warty or tuberculated.[ The genus includes species that are contrastingly marked, but most are very well-camouflaged, resembling plant material (typically bark or moss) or bird droppings.]arthropod
Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...
s. In species where known, breeding takes place in a small water pool in a cavity of a tree, bamboo
Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, bu ...
or karst
Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...
.[ The female places 4–20 eggs just above the water. After about one to two weeks they hatch into ]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 i ...
s that drop into the water; they metamorphose
Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some insec ...
into froglets after a few months to a year.[
]
Species and taxonomy
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 t ...
of ''Theloderma'' is '' Nyctixalus''. The taxonomy
Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification.
A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...
of this genus and ''Nyctixalus'' as well as '' Theloderma moloch'' has been in flux;[ today both AmphibiaWeb and ]Amphibian Species of the World
''Amphibian Species of the World 6.1: An Online Reference'' (ASW) is a herpetology database. It lists the names of frogs, salamanders and other amphibians, which scientists first described each species and what year, and the animal's known range. ...
recognize the two genera as valid.[
Following the Amphibian Species of the World, there are 26 recognized species in the genus ''Theloderma'':][
* '' Theloderma albopunctatum'' (Liu and Hu, 1962)
* '' Theloderma annae'' Nguyen, Pham, Nguyen, Ngo, and Ziegler, 2016
* '' Theloderma asperum'' (Boulenger, 1886)
* '' Theloderma auratum'' Poyarkov, Kropachev, Gogoleva, and Orlov, 2018
* '' Theloderma baibengense'' (Jiang, Fei, and Huang, 2009)
* '' Theloderma bicolor'' (Bourret, 1937)
* '' Theloderma corticale'' (Boulenger, 1903)
* '' Theloderma gordoni'' Taylor, 1962
* '' Theloderma horridum'' (Boulenger, 1903)
* '' Theloderma lacustrinum'' Sivongxay, Davankham, Phimmachak, Phoumixay, and Stuart, 2016
* '' Theloderma laeve'' (Smith, 1924)
* '' Theloderma lateriticum'' Bain, Nguyen, and Doan, 2009
* '' Theloderma leporosum'' Tschudi, 1838
* '' Theloderma licin'' McLeod and Norhayati, 2007
* '' Theloderma moloch'' (Annandale, 1912)
* '' Theloderma nagalandense'' Orlov, Dutta, Ghate, and Kent, 2006
* '' Theloderma nebulosum'' Rowley, Le, Hoang, Dau, and Cao, 2011]
References
Rhacophoridae
Amphibians of Asia
Amphibian genera
Taxa named by Johann Jakob von Tschudi
{{Rhacophoridae-stub