Uperodon systoma (Schneider, 1799)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Microhylidae > Subfamily: Microhylinae > Genus: Uperodon > Species: Uperodon systoma

Rana systoma Schneider, 1799, Hist. Amph. Nat.: 144. Type(s): "Museum Blochianum" (to ZMB); ZMB 3551 (2 specimens) are syntypes according to Peters, 1863, Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1863: 82, although ; surviving syntype redescribed by Garg, Senevirathne, Wijayathilaka, Phuge, Deuti, Manamendra-Arachchi, Meegaskumbura, and Biju, 2018, Zootaxa, 4384: 19. Type locality: "India orientali". Given as "Eastern India" by Parker, 1934, Monogr. Frogs Fam. Microhylidae: 75.

Bombinator systoma — Merrem, 1820, Tent. Syst. Amph.: 178.

Engystoma marmoratum Cuvier, 1829, Regne Animal., Ed. 2, 2: 112. Syntypes: Not stated; MNHNP 5040-41, according to Guibé, 1950 "1948", Cat. Types Amph. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat.: 62. Type locality: "l'Inde". Nomen nudum. Tentative synonymy by Duméril and Bibron, 1841, Erp. Gen., 6: 749; synonymy by Peters, 1863, Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1863: 82; Steindachner, 1867, Reise Österreichischen Fregatte Novara, Zool., Amph.: 36; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 174. Nomen oblitum under Art. 23.9 (International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, 1999; see Engystoma marmoratum (Hemisotidae), a nomen protectum).

Bufo (Engystoma) marmoratus Cuvier, 1829, Regne Animal., Ed. 2, 2: 111. by implication, an alternative original combination.

Bufo (Breviceps) marmoratus Cuvier, 1829, Regne Animal., Ed. 2, 2: 112. by implication, an alternative original combination.

Systoma leschenaultii Tschudi, 1838, Classif. Batr.: 49, 86. Type(s): MNHNP (with jar label of "Breviceps leschenaultii"). Type locality: Not designated. Attributed to "Bibr.". Synonymy by Duméril and Bibron, 1841, Erp. Gen., 6: 749; Günther, 1859 "1858", Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus.: 49; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 174.

Engystoma marmoratum — Guérin-Méneville, 1838, Icon. Regne Animal, 3: 17, pl. 27, fig. 3.

Rana (Breviceps) marmoratum — Guérin-Méneville, 1838, Icon. Regne Animal, 3: 17.

Uperodon marmoratum — Duméril and Bibron, 1841, Erp. Gen., 6: 749.

Hyperodon marmoratum — Jerdon, 1853, J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 22: 533.

Cacopus systoma — Günther, 1864, Rept. Brit. India: 415; Boulenger, 1890, Fauna Brit. India, Rept. Batr.: 496; Bourret, 1927, Fauna Indochine, Vert., 3: 263.

Systoma marmoratum — Steindachner, 1867, Reise Österreichischen Fregatte Novara, Zool., Amph.: 36; Cope, 1867, J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Ser. 2, 6: 194.

Pachybatrachus Petersii Keferstein, 1868, Arch. Naturgesch., 34: 274. Also described as new by by Keferstein, 1868, Nachr. Ges. Wiss. Göttingen, 1868: 326. Holotype: ZFMK 28388, according to Böhme and Bischoff, 1984, Bonn. Zool. Monogr., 19: 183. Type locality: "Neu-Süd-Wales", Australia [apparently in error]. Tentative synonymy by Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 174, followed by Parker, 1934, Monogr. Frogs Fam. Microhylidae: 75. This synonymy disputed by Böhme and Bischoff, 1984, Bonn. Zool. Monogr., 19: 183, but supported by Zweifel, 1985, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 182: 273–274, and Tyler, 1986, Trans. R. Soc. S. Aust., 110: 91–92. Böhme, 2014, Mertensiella, 21: 109, discussed and accepted the synonymy. Doubted by Garg, Senevirathne, Wijayathilaka, Phuge, Deuti, Manamendra-Arachchi, Meegaskumbura, and Biju, 2018, Zootaxa, 4384: 17, on the basis of the type locality alone. 

Uperodon systoma — Parker, 1931, Arch. Zool. Ital. Torino, 16: 1243.

Uperodon systomus — Anders, 2002, in Schleich and Kästle (eds.), Amph. Rept. Nepal: 199. Incorrect treatment of a noun as an adjective.

English Names

Indistinct Frog (Shaw, 1802, Gen. Zool., 3(1): 171).

Globular Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 93).

Marbled Balloon Frog (Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 102; Das and Dutta, 1998, Hamadryad, 23: 64; Khan, 2002, Bull. Chicago Herpetol. Soc., 37: 159; Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Gururaja, and Bhatta, 2009, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, Occas. Pap., 302: 60).

Lesser Balloon Frog (Daniels, 2005, Amph. Peninsular India: 139).

Balloon Frog (de Silva, 2009, Amph. Rep. Sri Lanka Photograph. Guide: 86).

Marbled Globular Frog (Garg, Senevirathne, Wijayathilaka, Phuge, Deuti, Manamendra-Arachchi, Meegaskumbura, and Biju, 2018, Zootaxa, 4384: 17). 

Distribution

Central and northern Pakistan, southern Himanchal Pradesh (India), southeastern Nepal, and west-central Assam (India), south through Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and West Bengal to southern India and Sri Lanka; possibly in northwestern Bangladesh.  

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka

Likely/Controversially Present: Bangladesh

Comment

See accounts by Kirtisinghe, 1957, Amph. Ceylon: 85–87, and Dutta and Manamendra-Arachchi, 1996, Amph. Fauna Sri Lanka: 53–57. Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 49–50, provided a brief account. Ray, 1999, Mem. Zool. Surv. India, 18: 83–86, provided an account. Khan, 2002, Bull. Chicago Herpetol. Soc., 37: 160, provided the Pakistan record. Saxena, 2001, J. Adv. Zool., Gorakhpur, 22: 74–76, discussed range in Rajasthan, India. Anders, 2002, in Schleich and Kästle (eds.), Amph. Rept. Nepal: 198–200, provided an extensive account for the Nepal population. Schleich, Anders, and Kästle, 2002, in Schleich and Kästle (eds.), Amph. Rept. Nepal: 79, provided the Nepal record. See account by Shrestha, 2001, Herpetol. Nepal: 76. Dutta, 1997, Amph. India Sri Lanka: 65, provided relevant literature, discussion of misidentifications in the literature, range, and an implication that the Sri Lankan and Indian populations may not be conspecific. Baig and Gvoždík, 1998, Pakistan J. Zool., 30: 155–156, provided a record from Shakarparian Hills, Islamabad Capital Territory, Pakistan. Khan, 2006, Amph. Rept. Pakistan: 55–56, provided a brief account for Pakistan. Daniels, 2005, Amph. Peninsular India: 139–141, provided an account for peninsular India. Sharma, 2005, Cobra, Chennai, 59: 1–4, discussed the records for Gujarat. Mehta, 2005, in Alfred (ed.), Fauna W. Himalaya, Part 2: 270, reported the species in Himanchal Pradesh, India, without noting specific localities. Sharma and Sharma, 2009, Cobra, Chennai, 3: 11–15, provided a record for central Rajasthan, India. de Silva, 2009, Amph. Rep. Sri Lanka Photograph. Guide: 86, provided a brief account and color photograph for Sri Lanka. See Shah and Tiwari, 2004, Herpetofauna Nepal: 40, for brief account for Nepal. Das and Dutta, 2007, Hamadryad, 31: 154–181, noted several larval descriptions in the literature of varying completeness. Masroor, 2011, Pakistan J. Zool., 43: 1041–1048, provided a record from Margalla Hills National Park, Islamabad Capital Territory, Pakistan. Masroor, 2012, Contr. Herpetol. N. Pakistan: 53–54, provided an account for northern Pakistan. Sivaprasad, 2013, Common Amph. Kerala: 100–101, provided a brief account, photograph, and dot map for Kerala, India. See account by Garg, Senevirathne, Wijayathilaka, Phuge, Deuti, Manamendra-Arachchi, Meegaskumbura, and Biju, 2018, Zootaxa, 4384: 17–19. Seetharamaraju, Kaur, Srinivasulu, and Srinivasulu, 2010, Frog Leg, 14: 3–5, provided a record from Hyderabad, India. Deuti, Sethy, and Ray, 2014, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, 114: 126–127, provided a  brief account for the population of the Eastern Ghats, India. Sreekumar and Dinesh, 2020, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, 120: 33–40, discussed the range in Maharashtra, India, in terms of agro-climatic zones.  Khatiwada, Wang, Zhao, Xie, and Jiang, 2021, Asian Herpetol. Res., 12: 1–35, discussed the genetics of the Nepal population. Rais, Ahmed, Sajjad, Akram, Saeed, Hamid, and Abid, 2021, ZooKeys, 1062: 157–175, included this species in an identification key to the amphibian species of Pakistan as well as providing a photograph and suggesting that the conservation status of this species in Pakistan is an open question. Prasad, Chuang, Das, Ramesh, Yi, Dinesh, and Borzée, 2022, BMC Zool., 7 (27): 1–12, detailed the advertisement call in a population in Madhya Pradesh, central India. Srinivasulu and Kumar, 2022, J. Threatened Taxa, 14: 21268, reported the species from the state of Telangana, south-central India. Raj, Vasudevan, Aggarwal, Dutta, Sahoo, Mahapatra, Sharma, Janani, Kar, and Dubois, 2023, Alytes, 39–40: 65–69, reported on larval morphology of genetically-confirmed specimens from Odisha, India. 

External links:

Please note: these links will take you to external websites not affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History. We are not responsible for their content.