Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
Single word	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Breviceps Merrem, 1820

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Brevicipitidae > Genus: Breviceps

20 species

Breviceps Merrem, 1820, Tent. Syst. Amph.: 177. Type species: Rana gibbosa Linnaeus, 1758, by monotypy.

Engystoma Fitzinger, 1826, Neue Class. Rept.: 39–40. Type species: Arguably either Rana gibbosa Linnaeus, by original designation, or Rana ovalis Schneider, 1799, by subsequent designation of Duméril and Bibron, 1841, Erp. Gén., 9: 740. Dubois, 1987, Alytes, 6: 75–84, interpreted Fitzinger's denotation of Rana gibbosa as "Repräsentant" as not constituting an original type designation and unsurprisingly decided that the subsequent designation by Duméril and Bibron rendered Engystoma an objective senior synonym of Elachistocleis Parker, 1927. He has submitted to the International Commission a petition to conserve Elachistocleis, although this interpretation is more than arguable in the opinion of DRF and for this reason Engystoma is retained in the synonymy of Breviceps. Synonymy with Breviceps by Stejneger, 1910, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 23: 165. Engystoma Duméril and Bibron, 1841, regarded as a synonym of Gastrophryne by Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 379, for undisclosed reasons. Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 216, regarded Engystoma as a senior synonym of Elachistocleis. Segalla, Berneck, Canedo, Caramaschi, Cruz, Garcia, Grant, Haddad, Lourenço, Mângia, Mott, Nascimento, Toledo, Werneck, and Langone, 2021, Herpetol. Brasil., 10: 124, discussed their reasoning for retaining Engystoma in the synonymy of Breviceps.

Systoma Wagler, 1830, Nat. Syst. Amph.: 205. Type species: Breviceps gibbosus Merrem, 1820 (= Rana gibbosa Linnaeus, 1758), by monotypy. Objective synonym of Breviceps as based on the same type species.

English Names

Blaasops (Wager, 1965, Frogs S. Afr.: 117; Passmore and Carruthers, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 19: 4).

Rain Frogs (Wager, 1965, Frogs S. Afr.: 117; Broadley, 1971, Puku, 6: 111; Van Dijk, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 17: 15; Passmore and Carruthers, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 19: 4; Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 82; Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 217).

Short-heads (Passmore and Carruthers, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 19: 4).

Short-headed Frogs (Van Dijk, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 17: 15; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 87).

Distribution

Arid to semiarid East and southern Africa.

Comment

See short discussion of taxonomic characters by Poynton and Broadley, 1985, Ann. Natal Mus., 26: 516–517. Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 209–229, and Du Preez and Carruthers, 2009, Compl. Guide Frogs S. Afr.: 102–133, provided keys and accounts for the species of southern Africa, and Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 217–220, provided a key and accounts for East Africa. Nielsen, Daniels, Conradie, Heinicke, and Noonan, 2018, J. Biogeograph., 45: 2067–2079, reported on the molecular phylogenetics and biogeography of the species in the genus, recognizing two species groups: Breviceps mossambicus group (Breviceps adspersus, Breviceps bsgginsi, Breviceps carruthersi, Breviceps fichus, Breviceps mossambicus, Breviceps passsmorei, Breviceps pentheri, Breviceps poweri, and Breviceps sopranus) and Breviceps gibbosus group (Breviceps acutirostris, Breviceps branchii, Breviceps fuscus, Breviceps gibbosus, Breviceps macrops, Breviceps montanus, Breviceps namaquensis, Breviceps rosei, Breviceps sylvestris, and Breviceps verrucosus). Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 116–123, provided brief accounts, photographs, and range maps for the species. Bittencourt-Silva, Bayliss, and Conradie, 2020, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 14 (2: e247): 198–271, reported what they think is an unnamed species from Mount Socone, Ile District, Zambezia Province, northeast-central Mozambique. Heinicke, Beidoun, Nielsen, and Bauer, 2021, Herpetol. Notes, 14: 397–406, documented via molecular analysis several unnamed species in the Breviceps mossambicus group.

Contained taxa (20 sp.):

Breviceps acutirostris Poynton, 1963

Breviceps adspersus Peters, 1882

Breviceps bagginsi Minter, 2003

Breviceps branchi Channing, 2012

Breviceps carruthersi Du Preez, Netherlands, and Minter, 2017

Breviceps fichus Channing and Minter, 2004

Breviceps fuscus Hewitt, 1925

Breviceps gibbosus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Breviceps macrops Boulenger, 1907

Breviceps montanus Power, 1926

Breviceps mossambicus Peters, 1854

Breviceps namaquensis Power, 1926

Breviceps ombelanonga Nielsen, Conradie, Ceríaco, Bauer, Heinicke, Stanley, and Blackburn, 2020

Breviceps passmorei Minter, Netherlands, and Du Preez, 2017

Breviceps pentheri Werner, 1899

Breviceps poweri Parker, 1934

Breviceps rosei Power, 1926

Breviceps sopranus Minter, 2003

Breviceps sylvestris FitzSimons, 1930

Breviceps verrucosus Rapp, 1842

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