Nyctibatrachus

Nyctibatrachus
Unidentified Nyctibatrachus from Phanasad Wildlife Sanctuary, Maharashtra
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Amphibia
Order:	Anura
Family:	Nyctibatrachidae
Genus:	Nyctibatrachus Boulenger, 1882
Species
Presently 28, see text

Nyctibatrachus is a genus of frogs endemic to the Western Ghats of southwestern India. Their common name is night frogs.^[1][2] Their scientific name also means "night frog", in reference to their habits and dark color.

Description

Nyctibatrachus are robust-bodied frogs that range in size from small (snout–vent length <20 mm in Nyctibatrachus beddomii) to relatively large (up to 84 mm Nyctibatrachus karnatakaensis). They have a concealed tympanum, dorsum with longitudinal skin folds, femoral glands, and expanded finger and toes disks. They occur near streams in hilly evergreen forests^[3] and are nocturnal.^[4] Most species have amplexus but Nyctibatrachus humayuni does not; in this species the male moves over the eggs after the female has deposited them.^[3]

Species

There are 28 species:

• Nyctibatrachus acanthodermis Biju et al., 2011^[4] - spinular night frog
• Nyctibatrachus aliciae Inger, Shaffer, Koshy, and Bakde, 1984
• Nyctibatrachus anamallaiensis (Myers, 1942)
• Nyctibatrachus beddomii (Boulenger, 1882)
• Nyctibatrachus danieli Biju et al., 2011^[4]
• Nyctibatrachus dattatreyaensis Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, and Bhatta, 2008
• Nyctibatrachus deccanensis Dubois, 1984
• Nyctibatrachus deveni Biju et al., 2011^[4]
• Nyctibatrachus gavi Biju et al., 2011^[4]
• Nyctibatrachus grandis Biju et al., 2011^[4]
• Nyctibatrachus humayuni Bhaduri and Kripalani, 1955 - Bombay night frog
• Nyctibatrachus indraneili Biju et al., 2011^[4]
• Nyctibatrachus jog Biju et al., 2011^[4] - Jog night frog
• Nyctibatrachus karnatakaensis Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Manjunatha Reddy, and Gururaja, 2007^[5]
• Nyctibatrachus kempholeyensis (Rao, 1937)
• Nyctibatrachus kumbara Gururaja, Dinesh, Priti, and Ravikanth, 2014
• Nyctibatrachus major Boulenger, 1882 – Malabar night frog
• Nyctibatrachus minimus Biju, Van Bocxlaer, Giri, Roelants, Nagaraju, and Bossuyt, 2007
• Nyctibatrachus minor Inger, Shaffer, Koshy, and Bakde, 1984
• Nyctibatrachus periyar Biju et al., 2011^[4]
• Nyctibatrachus petraeus Das and Kunte, 2005
• Nyctibatrachus pillaii Biju et al., 2011^[4]
• Nyctibatrachus poocha Biju et al., 2011^[4]
• Nyctibatrachus sanctipalustris Rao, 1920
• Nyctibatrachus shiradi Biju et al., 2011^[4]
• Nyctibatrachus sylvaticus Rao, 1937 - forest night frog
• Nyctibatrachus vasanthi Ravichandran, 1997
• Nyctibatrachus vrijeuni Biju et al., 2011^[4] - VUB night frog

References

1. Frost, Darrel R. (2015). "Nyctibatrachus Boulenger, 1882". Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
2. "Nyctibatrachidae". AmphibiaWeb: Information on amphibian biology and conservation. [web application]. Berkeley, California: AmphibiaWeb. 2014. Retrieved 29 May 2014.
3. Vitt, Laurie J.; Caldwell, Janalee P. (2014). Herpetology: An Introductory Biology of Amphibians and Reptiles (4th ed.). Academic Press. pp. 509–510.
4. Biju, S.D., Van Bocxlaer, I., Mahony, S., Dinesh, K.P., Radhakrishnan, C., Zachariah, A., Giri, V., and Bossuyt, F. (2011). "A taxonomic review of the Night Frog genus Nyctibatrachus Boulenger, 1882 in the Western Ghats, India (Anura: Nyctibatrachidae) with description of twelve new species" (PDF). Zootaxa. 3029: 1–96.
5. Dinesh, K.P., C. Radhakrishnan, A.H. Manjunatha Reddy and K.V. Gururaja (2007). "Nyctibatrachus karnatakaensis nom. nov., a replacement name for the Giant Wrinkled Frog from the Western Ghats" (PDF). Current Science. 93 (2): 246–250.

External links