Rhombophryne Boettger, 1880

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Microhylidae > Subfamily: Cophylinae > Genus: Rhombophryne
20 species

Rhombophryne Boettger, 1880, Zool. Anz., 3: 567. Type species: Rhombophryne testudo Boettger, 1880, by monotypy. 

Mantiphrys Mocquard, 1895, Bull. Soc. Philomath., Paris, Ser. 8, 7: 132. Type species: Mantiphrys laevipes Mocquard, 1895, by monotypy. Synonymy with Mantipus by Noble and Parker, 1926, Am. Mus. Novit., 232: 8; with Rhombophryne 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: 366.

Mantophrys — Mocquard, 1909, Nouv. Arch. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. Paris, Ser. 5, 1: 72. Incorrect subsequent spelling.

English Names

Burrowing Frogs (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 92).

Distribution

Madagascar.

Comment

See accounts by Blommers-Schlösser and Blanc, 1991, Faune de Madagascar, 75: 91-92, 105–111 (as Stumpffia) and Glaw and Vences, 2007, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Madagascar, Ed. 3: 118-119, and 126-131 (as Stumpffia). Andreone and Randrianirina, 2008, Zootaxa, 1812: 46-48, reported a unnamed (or unidentified) specimen of Rhombophryne from the Parc National Tsingy de Bemaraha in western Madagascar, extending the range of the genus from central and eastern Madagascar. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543-583, isuggested that Rhombophryne is the sister taxon of Stumpffia helenae (rendering Stumpffia polyphyletic) and together the sister of one component of Plethodontohyla (see that generic account).  Wollenberg, Vieites, van der Meijden, Glaw, Cannatella, and Vences, 2008, Evolution, 62: 1890-1907, suggested that Stumpffia is non-monphyletic, with Stumpffia helenae and an unnamed but closely related species forming the sister taxon of Rhombophryne, another piece of "Stumpffia" forming the sister taxon of that inclusive group, and a third piece of Stumpffia forming the sister taxon of PlethodontohylaPyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543-583, largely confirmed this arrangement. Megson, Mitchell, Köhler, Marsh, Franzen, Glaw, and D'Cruze, 2009, Herpetol. Notes, 2: 31-44, reported two unnamed species of Stumpffia from the Ampombofofo area in the extreme north of Madagascar. Köhler, Vences, D'Cruze, and Glaw, 2010, J. Zool., London, 282: 21-38, discussed the molecular and morphological systematics of Stumpffia, noting a number of new and unnamed species. Ndriantsoa, Riemann, Vences, Klages, Raminosoa, Rödel, and Glos, 2013, Zootaxa, 3636: 575–589, provided molecular tree for the species of Stumpffia, as did Klages, Glaw, Köhler, Müller, Hipsley, and Vences, 2013, Zootaxa, 3717: 280–300. Peloso, Frost, Richards, Rodrigues, Donnellan, Matsui, Raxworthy, Biju, Lemmon, Lemmon, and Wheeler, 2016, Cladistics, 32: 113–140, confirmed the non-monophyly of Stumpffia and placed it in the synonymy of Rhombophryne to render a monophyletic taxonomy.  Scherz, Vences, Rakotoarison, Andreone, Köhler, Glaw, and Crottini, 2016, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 100: 372–381, disagreed with this taxonomy and re-recognized Stumpffia along with a new genus Anilany in an attempt to land on a monophyletic taxonomy; this approach was rejected by Peloso, Raxworthy, Wheeler, and Frost, 2017, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 111: 56–64, on evidentiary and methodological grounds. Scherz, Hawlitschek, Andreone, Rakotoarison, Vences, and Glaw, 2017, Zootaxa, 4273: 301–340, reported on the molecular systematics and osteology of the Rhombophryne serratopalpebrosa species group. Scherz, Vences, Rakotoarison, Andreone, Köhler, Glaw, and Crottini, 2017, Salamandra, 53: 479–483, responded to the Peloso et al. (2017) paper noting errors and arguing for retention of Stumpffia for utilitarian purposes; subsequently decisive results were provided Tu, Yang, Liang, and Zhang, 2018, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 126: 85–91, and Scherz, Hutter, Rakotoarison, Riemann, Rödel, Ndriantsoa, Glos, Roberts, Crottini, Vences, and Glaw, 2019, PLoS One, 14 (3: e0213314): 1–45, which supported the retention of Stumpffia and Anilany. Belluardo, Scherz, Santos, Andreone, Antonelli, Glaw, Muñoz-Pajares, Randrianirina, Raselimanana, Vences, and Crottini, 2022, Syst. Biodiversity, 20 (1: 2039320): 1–13, provided a molecular tree of the genus and recognized 10 candidate species and 6 species groups, noted in the species records. 

Contained taxa (20 sp.):

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