Sphaerotheca Günther, 1859

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Dicroglossidae > Subfamily: Dicroglossinae > Genus: Sphaerotheca

Sphaerotheca Günther, 1859 "1858", Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus.: 20. Type species: Sphaerotheca strigata Günther, 1859 "1858", by monotypy.

English Names

None noted.

Distribution

Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

Comment

See comment under Tomopterna. Asian members of Tomopterna removed to Rana by Dubois, 1984, Alytes, 3: 143-159, but this was superseded by Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 56-57, who included several of them and recognized two subgenera (Sphaerotheca and Tomopterna) which were subsequently ( Dubois and Ohler, 2000, Alytes, 18: 35) considered to be separate genera on the basis of its posited closer relationship to Hoplobatrachus and Fejervarya than Tomopterna (now in Pyxicephalidae). In the subfamily Dicroglossinae, tribe Dicroglossini according to Dubois, Ohler, and Biju, 2001, Alytes, 19: 55. Vences, Glaw, Kosuch, Das, and Veith, 2000, Lourenço and Goodman (eds.), Diversité et Endéémisme à Madagascar: 229-242, suggested that this taxon may be closely related to the Cacosternines (Petropedetidae). Anders, 2002, in Schleich and Kästle (eds.), Amph. Rept. Nepal: 301-316, provided a key and accounts for the species in Nepal. Grosjean, Vences, and Dubois, 2004, Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 81: 171-181, suggested on the basis of molecular data that Sphaerotheca is close to Fejervarya. Frost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, de Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green, and Wheeler, 2006, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 297, and Kotaki, Kurabayashi, Matsui, Khonsue, Djong, Tandon, and Sumida, 2008, Zool. Sci., Tokyo, 25: 381-390, suggested that Sphaerotheca is phylogenetically imbedded within a paraphyletic Fejervarya.

Contained taxa

Sphaerotheca breviceps (Schneider, 1799)
Sphaerotheca dobsonii (Boulenger, 1882)
Sphaerotheca leucorhynchus (Rao, 1937)
Sphaerotheca rolandae (Dubois, 1983)
Sphaerotheca strachani (Murray, 1884)

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