''Pelophylax'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

true frog True frogs is the common name for the frog family Ranidae. They have the widest distribution of any frog family. They are abundant throughout most of the world, occurring on all continents except Antarctica. The true frogs are present in North Am ...

s widespread in Eurasia, with a few species ranging into northern Africa. This genus was erected by Leopold Fitzinger in 1843 to accommodate the green frogs of the Old World, which he considered distinct from the brown pond frogs of

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

' genus '' Rana''. They are also known as water frogs, as they spend much of the summer living in aquatic

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

; the pond frogs can be found more often, by comparison, on dry land, as long as there is sufficient

humidity Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for precipitation, dew, or fog to be present. Humidity dep ...

. Yet there are species of Eurasian green frogs – the

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

n '' P. terentievi'', or the Sahara frog (''P. saharicus'') – which inhabit waterholes in the desert.

Systematics and taxonomy

Most authors throughout the 19th and 20th century disagreed with Fitzinger's assessment. The green frogs were included again with the brown frogs, in line with the tendency to place any frog similar in habitus to the common frog (''R. temporaria'') in ''Rana''. That genus, in the loose circumscription, eventually became a sort of " wastebin taxon". Around 2000, with molecular phylogenetic studies becoming commonplace, it was discovered that Fitzinger's assessment was correct after all – not only is ''Pelophylax'' an independent genus, but it does in fact belong to a lineage of Raninae not particularly close to ''Rana''. But it also turned out that these Eurasian green frogs might not form a monophyletic lineage. The sheer number of

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

involved in the group of ''Pelophylax'' and its closest relatives means that it will probably be some time until the definite circumscription of this genus is resolved. The ''Pelophylax'' frogs belong to a group of moderately advanced Raninae – possibly a clade – that also includes such genera as '' Babina'', '' Glandirana'', ''

Hylarana ''Hylarana'', commonly known as golden-backed frogs, is a genus of true frogs found in tropical Asia. It was formerly considered highly diverse, containing around 84 to 96 valid species, but taxonomic revision resulted in a major change in the c ...

'', '' Pulchrana'', '' Sanguirana'', '' Sylvirana'', as well as '' Hydrophylax'' which like ''Pelophylax'' is suspected of being not monophyletic. These genera were formerly also included in ''Rana'' by most authors, and several of them have only been established in the 1990s. And as regards the possible paraphyly of ''Pelophylax'', it seems that some species assigned there are very close to ''Hylarana'', and thus it might simply be a matter of moving them to that genus. But

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...

ogenic speciation is running rampant in the Old World green frogs, and this obfuscates the data gained from DNA sequence analyses.

Species

Including named klepta ( hybridogenic species), ''Pelophylax''

sensu lato ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular c ...

contains 25 species: * '' Pelophylax bedriagae'' – Levant water frog * '' Pelophylax bergeri'' – Italian pool frog * '' Pelophylax caralitanus'' (Arikan, 1988) (formerly in ''P. bedriagae'') * '' Pelophylax cerigensis'' – Karpathos frog * '' Pelophylax chosenicus'' – Seoul frog * '' Pelophylax cretensis'' – Cretan frog * '' Pelophylax cypriensis'' – Cyprus water frog * '' Pelophylax demarchii'' (validity and taxonomic status unclear;

klepton In biology, a klepton (abbr. kl.) and synklepton (abbr sk.) is a species that requires input from another biological taxon (normally from a species which is closely related to the kleptonic species) to complete its reproductive cycle. Specific typ ...

?) * '' Pelophylax epeiroticus'' – Epirus water frog * '' Pelophylax fukienensis'' (formerly in ''P. plancyi'') * '' Pelophylax hubeiensis'' (may belong in ''P. plancyi'') * '' Pelophylax kurtmuelleri'' – Balkan frog * ''

Pelophylax lessonae The pool frog (''Pelophylax lessonae'') is a European frog in the family Ranidae. Its specific name (zoology), specific name was chosen by the Italian Herpetology, herpetologist Lorenzo Camerano in 1882, in order to honour his master Michele Less ...

'' – pool frog * '' Pelophylax nigromaculatus'' – dark-spotted frog (may include ''P. tenggerensis'') * '' Pelophylax perezi'' – Perez's frog * '' Pelophylax plancyi'' – eastern golden frog (may include ''P. hubeiensis'') * '' Pelophylax porosus'' – Daruma pond frog * '' Pelophylax ridibundus'' – marsh frog * '' Pelophylax saharicus'' – Sahara frog * '' Pelophylax shqipericus'' – Albanian water frog * '' Pelophylax tenggerensis'' (may belong in ''P. nigromaculatus'') * '' Pelophylax terentievi'' (taxonomic status unclear; klepton?) Named klepta ( hybridogenic species) of ''Pelophylax'' are: * ''Pelophylax'' kl. ''esculentus'' – edible frog (''P. lessonae'' × ''P. ridibundus'') * ''Pelophylax'' kl. ''grafi'' – Graf's hybrid frog (''P. perezi'' × ''P. ridibundus'') * ''Pelophylax'' kl. ''hispanicus'' – Italian edible frog (''P. bergeri'' × ''P. ridibundus'' / ''P.'' kl. ''esculentus'') In addition, one species has been described that is sometimes assigned to ''Pelophylax'', but must be considered a '' nomen oblitum'': * '' "Hyla" ranaeformis'' Laurenti, 1768 (= " Hyla gibbosa" Lacépède, 1788 ( unavailable: published in non- binomial work) )

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1187092 Amphibian genera Taxa named by Leopold Fitzinger

Systematics and taxonomy

Species

See also

References

External links