Limnonectes

Limnonectes
Fanged river frog (Limnonectes macrodon)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Dicroglossidae
Subfamily: Dicroglossinae
Genus: Limnonectes
Species

More than 60, see text

Synonyms

Taylorana Dubois, 1986

Limnonectes is a genus of fork-tongued frogs of about 64 known species, but new ones are still being described occasionally.[1] They are collectively known as fanged frogs because they tend to have unusually large teeth, which are small or absent in other frogs.

Habitat

These frogs are found throughout East and Southeast Asia, most commonly near forest streams. Multiple species of Limnonectes may occupy the same area in harmony.[2] Large-bodied species cluster around fast rivers, while smaller ones live among leaf-litter or on stream banks. The Indonesian island of Sulawesi is home to at least 15 species of this frog, only four of which have been formally described.[3]

Lifecycle

Tadpoles of this genus have adapted to a variety of conditions. Most species (e.g. Blyth's river frog L. blythii or the fanged river frog L. macrodon) develop normally, with free-swimming tadpoles that eat food.[4] The tadpoles of the corrugated frog (L. laticeps) are free-swimming but endotrophic, meaning they do not eat but live on stored yolk until metamorphosis into frogs.[4] Before, L. limborgi was assumed to have direct development (eggs hatching as tiny, full-formed frogs), but more careful observations have showed it has free-swimming but endotrophic larvae; this probably applies to the closely related L. hascheanus, too.[5] L. larvaepartus is the only known species of frog that gives live birth to tadpoles.[3] Parental care is performed by males.[2]

Species

References

  1. 1 2 Frost, Darrel R. (2014). "Limnonectes Fitzinger, 1843". Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  2. 1 2 McLeod, D.S. , S.J. Horner, C. Husted, A. Barley & D.T. Iskandar (2011). "Same-same, but different: An unusual new species of the Limnonectes kuhlii Complex from West Sumatra (Anura: Dicroglossidae)" (PDF). Zootaxa 2883: 52–64.
  3. 1 2 Iskandar, D. T.; Evans, B. J.; McGuire, J. A. (2014). "A Novel Reproductive Mode in Frogs: A New Species of Fanged Frog with Internal Fertilization and Birth of Tadpoles". PLoS ONE 9 (12): e115884. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0115884.
  4. 1 2 Tzi Ming, Leong (2004). "Larval descriptions of some poorly known tadpoles from Peninsular Malaysia (Amphibia: Anura)" (PDF). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 52 (2): 609-620.
  5. ↑ Rowley, J. J. L.; Altig, R. (2012). "Nidicolous development in Limnonectes limborgi (Anura, Dicroglossidae)". Amphibia-Reptilia 33: 145–149. doi:10.1163/156853812X626179.
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