Smilisca Cope, 1865

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Hylidae > Subfamily: Hylinae > Genus: Smilisca
9 species

Smilisca Cope, 1865, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 17: 194. Type species: Smilisca daulinia Cope, 1865 (= Hyla baudinii Duméril and Bibron, 1841), by monotypy.

Pternohyla Boulenger, 1882, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 5, 10: 326. Type species: Pternohyla fodiens Boulenger, 1882, by monotypy. Synonymy by Faivovich, Haddad, Garcia, Frost, Campbell, and Wheeler, 2005, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 294: 106.

English Names

Mexican Treefrogs (Smilisca: Conant, 1975, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am., Ed. 2: 326; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 13; Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 28; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 14; Frost, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2008, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 37: 12; Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 22; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 8; Frost, McDiarmid, Mendelson, and Green, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 21; Frost, Lemmon, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 20).

Cross-banded Treefrogs (Smilisca: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 64).

Smiliscas (Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 16).

Burrowing Treefrogs (Pternohyla [no longer recognized]: Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 12; Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 26 Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 13; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 13).

Burrowing Frogs (Pternohyla [no longer recognized]: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 63).

Middle American Treefrogs (Hedges, Powell, Henderson, Hanson, and Murphy, 2019, Caribb. Herpetol., 67: 14). 

Distribution

Southern Arizona and extreme southern Texas (USA), south through the lowlands of Mexico (onto the central Plateau in Aguascalientes) to Central America and northwestern South America (exclusive of Amazon Basin).

Comment

For review see Duellman and Trueb, 1966, Univ. Kansas Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist., 17: 281-375, and Duellman, 1970, Monogr. Mus. Nat. Hist. Univ. Kansas: 585–618. Generic synonymy and key in Duellman, 1968, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 58: 1–2. Duellman, 2001, Hylid Frogs Middle Am., Ed. 2: 991–997, presented a cladogram for the species, showing that Smilisca is paraphyletic with respect to Pternohyla and Triprion, as well as systematic notes on the species. Savage, 2002, Amph. Rept. Costa Rica: 349–357, provided a key and accounts for the species of Costa Rica. Faivovich, Haddad, Garcia, Frost, Campbell, and Wheeler, 2005, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 294: 106, placed Pternohyla in synonymy to prevent paraphyly of Smilisca as previously conceived (not the other way around as stated by Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 365). Wiens, Fetzner, Parkinson, and Reeder, 2005, Syst. Biol., 54: 25, considered Smilisca to be synonymous with a large but monophyletic HylaLemos-Espinal and Dixon, 2013, Amphibians and Reptiles of San Luis Potosí: 57–59, provided an account for San Luis Potosí, Mexico.

Contained taxa (9 sp.):

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