Xenophrys Günther, 1864

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Megophryidae > Genus: Xenophrys

Xenophrys Günther, 1864, Rept. Brit. India: 414. Type species: Xenophrys monticola Günther, 1864 (= Leptobrachium parvum), by monotypy. Synonymy with Leptobrachium by Boulenger, 1889, Ann. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Genova, Ser. 2, 7: 748; with Megalophrys by Boulenger, 1908, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1908: 407. Considered a subgenus of Megophrys by Dubois and Ohler, 1998, Dumerilia, 4: 14.

Atympanophrys Tian and Hu, 1983, Acta Herpetol. Sinica, Chengdu, N.S.,, 2 (2): 43, 47. Type species: Megophrys shapingensis Liu, 1950, by original designation. Synonymy with Xenophrys by Delorme, Dubois, Grosjean, and Ohler, 2006, Alytes, 24: 18. Considered a subgenus of Megophrys by Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 23.

Atympanophrys — Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 23. Treatment as a subgenus of Megophrys.

Panophrys Rao and Yang, 1997, Asiat. Herpetol. Res., 7: 98. Type species: Megophrys omeimontis, by original designation. Synonymy by Dubois and Ohler, 1998, Dumerilia, 4: 14.

Xenophrys — Khonsue and Thirakhupt, 2001, Nat. Hist. J. Chulalongkorn Univ., 1: 75. Ohler, 2003, Alytes, 21: 23. Treatment as a genus.

English Names

Asian Spadefoot Toads (part—Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 87; Li, Zhao, and Dong, 2010, Amph. Rept. Tibet: 22).

Shaping Frogs (Atympanophrys [no longer recognized]: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 85).

Distribution

Southeastern Asia to Borneo.

Comment

See comment under Megophrys as well as discussion by Dubois and Ohler, 1998, Dumerilia, 4: 13-14. The content of this taxon has not been detailed with respect to Megophrys. Rao and Yang, 1997, Asiat. Herpetol. Res., 7: 98, placed a number of species in Panophrys, but did not address all species in Megophrys, rendering the content and distribution of both nominal genera uncertain. See comment under Megophrys edwardinae. Jiang, Yuan, Xie, and Zheng, 2003, Zool. Res., Kunming, 24: 246, suggested on the basis of DNA sequence data and karyotype that Atympanophrys and Brachytarsophrys are imbedded within Xenophrys, more closely related to such species as Xenophrys minor, Xenophrys brachykolos, and Xenophrys omeimontis, than Xenophrys glanulosa. Delorme, Dubois, Grosjean, and Ohler, 2006, Alytes, 24: 6-21, suggested on the basis of morphological comparisons that Brachytarsophrys is not part of this phylogenetic assemblage and that Xenophrys is not diagnosable against the backdrop of Megophryini. Fei, Ye, Huang, Jiang, and Xie, 2005, Illust. Key Chinese Amph.: 77, regarded Atympanophrys as the Megophrys shapingensis group (in which they also included Xenophrys nankiangensis) and provided a key to Chinese species under this nomenclature. Xu, 2005, Sichuan J. Zool., 24: 337-339, regarded Atympanophrys as valid on karyological grounds. Li and Wang, 2008, Acta Zootaxon. Sinica, 33: 104-106, reviewed the species of China and concurred with the generic separation of Megophrys and Xenophrys. Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2009, Fauna Sinica, Amph. 2: 346-471, provided a key and accounts for the species of China (as Megophrys). Mahony, 2011, Zootaxa, 2734: 23-39, suggested that Xenophrys should be considered a junior synonym of Megophrys. But, Megophrys sits in Megophryini (a taxon diagnosed by apomorphies that includes Megophrys, Borneophrys, and Brachytarsophrys) and Xenophrys is diagnostically equivalent to Megophryinae in the scheme provided by Mahony, 2011, Zootaxa, 2734: 23-39. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543-583, in their study of Genbank sequences, noted the paraphyly of Xenophrys with respect to Megophrys and Brachytarsophrys (and did not address Borneophrys), with such species as Xenophrys shapingensis and Xenophrys nankiangensis being more closely related to Brachytarsophrys than to other species of Xenophrys and Xenophrys baluensis being more closely related to Megophrys. So, at present "Xenophrys" is a basal cloud within Megophryini and not monophyletic. But, if we follow the synonymy of Xenophrys with Megophrys, this merely loses Megophrys as monophyletic and makes it paraphyletic with respect to Brachytarsophrys. Wang, Zhang, Zhao, Sung, Yang, Pang, and Zhang, 2012, Zootaxa, 3546: 53-67, provided molecular evidence of the paraphyly of Xenophrys with respect to Ophryophryne, but did not make the nomenclatural remedy.

Contained taxa

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Amphibian Species of the World 5.6, an Online Reference