Uperodon Duméril and Bibron, 1841

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Microhylidae > Subfamily: Microhylinae > Genus: Uperodon
13 species

Uperodon Duméril and Bibron, 1841, Erp. Gen., 6: 48, 746. Type species: Engystoma marmoratum Guérin-Méneville, 1838 (= Rana systoma Schneider, 1799), by monotypy.

Hyperodon Agassiz, 1846, Nomencl. Zool., Fasc. 12: 190. Unjustified emendation of Uperodon Duméril and Bibron, 1841.

Cacopus Günther, 1864, Rept. Brit. India: 415. Substitute name for Uperodon Duméril and Bibron, 1841.

Pachybatrachus Keferstein, 1868, Arch. Naturgesch., 34: 273. Type species: Pachybatrachus petersii Keferstein, 1868, by monotypy. Also described as new by by Keferstein, 1868, Nachr. Ges. Wiss. Göttingen, 1868: 326. Synonymy by Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 174. Synonymy disputed by Böhme and Bischoff, 1984, Bonn. Zool. Monogr., 19: 183. Zweifel, 1985, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 182: 273-274, reinstated the synonymy. See Tyler, 1986, Trans. R. Soc. S. Aust., 110: 91-92.

Ramanella Rao in Rao and Ramanna, 1925, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1925: 587. Type species: Ramanella symbiotica Rao and Ramanna, 1925 (= Callula variegata Stoliczka, 1872), by monotypy. Synonymy by Peloso, Frost, Richards, Rodrigues, Donnellan, Matsui, Raxworthy, Biju, Lemmon, Lemmon, and Wheeler, 2016, Cladistics, 32: 138. Authorship discussed by Sherwood, 2022, Reptiles & Amphibians, 29: 257–258. 

English Names

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

Balloon Frogs (Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 102; Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Deepak, and Kulkarni, 2023, Fauna India Checklist, vers. 5.0 : 7).

Dot Frogs (Ramanella [no longer recognized]: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 92).

Distribution

Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka; Myanmar.

Comment

Formerly in the Old World component of Microhylinae; 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: 225, removed Uperodon from any subfamily pending resolution of its phylogenetic placement. Van Bocxlaer, Roelants, Biju, Nagaraju, and Bossuyt, 2006, PLoS One, 1: 1-6, transferred Uperodon to Microhylinae and suggested that it is the sister taxon of Ramanella. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543-583, in their molecular study, confirmed this conclusion. Garg, Senevirathne, Wijayathilaka, Phuge, Deuti, Manamendra-Arachchi, Meegaskumbura, and Biju, 2018, Zootaxa, 4384: 1–88, reviewed the molecular phylogenetics and taxonomy of the genus, as well as comparing advertisement calls and adult and larval anatomy. 

Contained taxa (13 sp.):

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