Elachistocleis Parker, 1927

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Microhylidae > Subfamily: Gastrophryninae > Genus: Elachistocleis

Engystoma Fitzinger, 1826, Neue Class. Rept.: 39-40. Type species: Arguably either Rana gibbosa Linnaeus, by original designation, or Rana ovalis Schneider, 1799, by subsequent designation of Duméril and Bibron, 1841, Erp. Gén., 9: 740. Dubois, 1987, Alytes, 6: 75-84, interpreted Fitzinger's denotation of Rana gibbosa as "Repräsentant" as not constituting an original type designation. The subsequent designation by Duméril and Bibron renders Engystoma an objective senior synonym of Elachistocleis Parker, 1927. He has submitted to the International Commission a petition to conserve Elachistocleis, although this interpretation is arguable in the opinion of DRF. See Breviceps. Synonymy by Stejneger, 1910, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 23: 165.

Microps Wagler, 1828, Isis von Oken, 21: 744. Type species: Microps unicolor (= Elachistocleis ovalis), by monotypy. Preoccupied by Microps Megerle, 1823. Synonymy with Engystoma by Duméril and Bibron, 1841, Erp. Gen., 8: 738; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 160.

Stenocephalus Tschudi, 1838, Classif. Batr.: 86. Type species: Stenocephalus microps Tschudi, 1838, by monotypy. Preoccupied by Stenocephalus Latreille, 1825. Synonymy with Engystoma by Duméril and Bibron, 1841, Erp. Gen., 8: 738; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 160.

Elachistocleis Parker, 1927, Occas. Pap. Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan, 187: 4. Type species: Rana ovalis Schneider, 1799, by original designation. See comment.

English Names

Oval Frogs (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 89).

Distribution

Panama and Colombia southward, east of the Andes, to southern Paraguay, southeastern Bolivia, central Argentina, central and southeastern Brazil and Uruguay; Trinidad.

Comment

Probably derived from Relictivomer and possibly ancestral to Synapturanus and Myersiella according to Carvalho, 1954, Occas. Pap. Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan, 555: 15, although this view has not survived subsequent phylogenetic work (see subfamily and family accounts). Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543-583, in their study of Genbank sequences, suggested Elachistocleis to be the sister taxon of Hypopachus + Gastrophryne. See Dubois, 1987, Alytes, 6: 75-84, on proposed conservation of the generic name and discussion of senior synonyms and type species. See Cei, 1987, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Suppl., 21: 215, for discussion of confusion surrounding taxonomy of the genus. Lavilla, Vaira, and Ferrari, 2003, Amphibia-Reptilia, 24: 269-284, provided a tentative identification framework of the species, and expanded on the problems of Elachistocleis taxonomy—required reading for anyone attempting identifications within this genus. Nunes, Canedo, and Carvalho, 2010, S. Am. J. Herpetol., 5: 30-34, discussed the distribution of the commissural gland within this taxon. Caramaschi, 2010, Bol. Mus. Nac., Rio de Janeiro, N.S., Zool., 527: 1-30, discussed the difficult nomenclatural and taxonomic history of this taxon and considered the type species, Rana ovalis Schneider, to be a nomen dubium. This has the effect of leaving populations from Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, French Guiana, and Surinam without a name. Jansen, Bloch, Schulze, and Pfenninger, 2011, Zool. Scripta, 40: 567-583, reported on two unnamed species in Amazonian Bolivia, based on genetic data.

Contained taxa

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