The Rhacophoridae are a family of frogs 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 known as shrub frogs, or more ambiguously as "moss frogs" or "bush frogs". Some Rhacophoridae are called "tree frogs". Among the most spectacular members of this family are numerous "flying frogs".

Although a few groups are primarily terrestrial, rhacophorids are predominantly arboreal treefrogs. Mating frogs, while in amplexus, hold on to a branch, and beat their legs to form a foam. The eggs are laid in the foam and covered with seminal fluid before the foam hardens into a protective casing. In certain species, this process occurs collectively. The foam is deposited above a water source, ensuring that the tadpoles drop into the water upon hatching.

The species within this family vary in size from .

Taxonomy

Evolution

Taxonomic relationships within the Rhacophoridae are incompletely understood. Molecular phylogenetic analyses indicate that some cryptic species remain undescribed, while taxa currently considered separate species may need to be synonymized.thumb|Amboli bush frog ([[Pseudophilautus amboli), a member of the Rhacophoridae, with enlarged vocal sac for mating calls]]

Genera

  • Subfamily Buergeriinae <small>Channing, 1989</small>
  • Buergeria <small>Tschudi, 1838</small>
  • Subfamily Rhacophorinae <small>Hoffman, 1932 (1858)</small>
  • Beddomixalus <small>Abraham, Pyron, Ansil, Zachariah, and Zachariah, 2013</small>
  • Chirixalus <small>Boulenger, 1893</small>
  • Chiromantis <small>Peters, 1854</small>
  • Feihyla <small>Frost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, de Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green, and Wheeler, 2006</small>
  • Ghatixalus <small>Biju, Roelants, and Bossuyt, 2008</small>
  • Gracixalus <small>Delorme, Dubois, Grosjean, and Ohler, 2005</small>
  • Kurixalus <small>Ye, Fei, and Dubois, 1999</small>
  • Leptomantis <small>Peters, 1867</small>
  • Liuixalus <small>Li, Che, Bain, Zhao, and Zhang, 2008</small>
  • Mercurana <small>Abraham et al., 2013</small>
  • Nasutixalus <small>Jiang, Yan, Wang, and Che, 2016</small>
  • Nyctixalus <small>Boulenger, 1882</small>
  • Philautus <small>Gistel, 1848</small>
  • Polypedates <small>Tschudi, 1838</small>
  • Pseudophilautus <small>Laurent, 1943</small>
  • Raorchestes <small>Biju, Shouche, Dubois, Dutta, and Bossuyt, 2010</small>
  • Rhacophorus <small>Kuhl and Van Hasselt, 1822</small>
  • Rohanixalus <small>Biju, Garg, Gokulakrishnan, Chandrakasan, Thammachoti, Ren, Gopika, Bisht, Hamidy, and Shouche, 2020</small>
  • Taruga <small>Meegaskumbura, Meegaskumbura, Bowatte, Manamendra-Arachchi, Pethiyagoda, Hanken, and Schneider, 2010</small>
  • Theloderma <small>Tschudi, 1838</small>
  • Vampyrius <small>Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021</small>
  • Zhangixalus <small>Li, Jiang, Ren, and Jiang, 2019</small>

Phylogeny

This phylogeny of the Rhacophoridae is from Yu et al. (2008):

Parasites

Like many frogs, rhacophorids harbour monogenean worms in their urinary bladders. The parasite species specialized to this family of frogs belong to the genus Indopolystoma, described in 2019.

References