Platyplectrum Günther, 1863

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Superfamily: Myobatrachoidea > Family: Limnodynastidae > Genus: Platyplectrum
6 species

Platyplectrum Günther, 1863, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 3, 11: 27. Type species: Platyplectrum marmoratum Günther, 1863, by monotypy.

PlatyplectronPeters, 1863, Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1863: 235. Incorrect subsequent spelling, treated as a subgenus of Limnodynastes.

Opisthodon Steindachner, 1867, Reise Österreichischen Fregatte Novara, Zool., Amph.: 9. Type species: Opisthodon frauenfeldi Steindachner, 1867, by monotypy. Synonymy by implication of Cogger, Cameron, and Cogger, 1983, Zool. Cat. Aust., Amph. Rept., 1: 19, and Tyler and Doughty, 2009, Field Guide Frogs W. Aust., 4th ed.: 107. 

Lechriodus Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Grad. Batr. Apoda Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 116. Replacement name for Batrachopsis Boulenger, 1882. Synonymy by Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 201. 

Batrachopsis Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 439. Type species: Asterophrys melanopyga Doria, 1875 "1874", by monotypy (see Opinion 1063, Anonymous, 1976, Bull. Zool. Nomencl., 33: 34-35). Preoccupied by Batrachopsis Fitzinger 1843.

Phanerotis Boulenger, 1890, Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales, Ser. 2, 5: 593. Type species: Phanerotis fletcheri Boulenger, 1890, by monotypy. Synonymy with Lechriodus by Parker, 1940, Novit. Zool., 42: 24.

English Names

Cannibal Frogs (Lechriodus [no longer recognized]: (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 94).

Distribution

Australia and New Guinea; Aru Island.

Comment

Lechriodus reviewed by Zweifel, 1972, Am. Mus. Novit., 2507: 1-41, who also discussed phylogeny within the genus. Cogger, Cameron, and Cogger, 1983, Zool. Cat. Aust., Amph. Rept., 1: 19, showed that Platyplectrum is a senior synonym of Opisthodon. See also Tyler and Doughty, 2009, Field Guide Frogs W. Aust., 4th ed.: 107). See Barker, Grigg, and Tyler, 1995, Field Guide Aust. Frogs., Ed. 2, for keys to species of nominal Lechriodus and accounts of Australian species. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543-583, iuggested that Platyplectrum is paraphyletic with respect to Lechriodus. To render Limnodynastes monophyletic, Opisthodon (now Platyplectrum, the sister taxon of Lechriodus) was removed from the synonymy of Limnodynastes by 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, where it had been placed by Günther, 1867, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 3, 20: 54; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 258; Nieden, 1923, Das Tierreich, 46: 528. Opisthodon had been previously recognized; without discussion, by Wells and Wellington, 1985, Aust. J. Herpetol., Suppl. Ser., 1: 3. Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 429, placed Lechriodus into the synonymy of Platyplectrum to resolve the paraphyly of Platyplectrum

Contained taxa (6 sp.):

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