Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis (Schneider, 1799)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Dicroglossidae > Subfamily: Dicroglossinae > Genus: Euphlyctis > Species: Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis

Rana cyanophlyetis Schneider, 1799, Hist. Amph. Nat.: 137. Syntypes: "Exempla duo . . . in Museum Blochianum"; ZMB 3197-98, according to Peters, 1863, Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1863: 78. Type locality: "India orientali"; probably from Tranquebar, India, according to Bauer, 1998, Hamadryad, 23: 137. Note that Schneider clearly intended to spell the specific name "cyanophlyetis", which he does on page 137, and again on page 144. Nevertheless, the current Code of Zoological Nomenclature (1999), Art. 33.3.1, preserves the "prevailing usage", which is clearly "cyanophlyctis".

Bufo cyanophlyctis —Latreille In Sonnini de Manoncourt and Latreille, 1801 "An. X", Hist. Nat. Rept., 2: 132; Merrem, 1820, Tent. Syst. Amph.: 176. Incorrect subsequent spelling but now prevailing usage.

Rana cyanophlyetis — Shaw, 1802, Gen. Zool., 3(1): 111.

Bufo cyanoplyetis — Daudin, 1802 "An. XI", Hist. Nat. Rain. Gren. Crap., Quarto: 103. Incorrect subsequent spelling.

Bufo cyanophlyetis — Daudin, 1803 "An. XI", Hist. Nat. Gen. Part. Rept., 8: 209.

Rana bengalensis Gray, 1830, Illust. Indian Zool., Part 3: pl. 82, fig. 2. Holotype: Frog illustrated in original figure, deposition unknown, although possibly in possession of Thomas Hardwicke at one time and possibly transferred to BMNH but location now unknown and presumed lost. Type locality: "Bengal", India or Bangladesh. Tentive synonymy with Rana leschenaultii Duméril and Bibron, 1841, by Cantor, 1847, J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 16: 1060. Synonymy by Günther, 1864, Rept. Brit. India: 406; Steindachner, 1867, Reise Österreichischen Fregatte Novara, Zool., Amph.: 20.

Rana leschenaultii Duméril and Bibron, 1841, Erp. Gen., 8: 342. Syntypes: MNHNP; MNHNP 4366–70 considered syntypes by Guibé, 1950 "1948", Cat. Types Amph. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat.: 37. Type localities: "Pondichéry", India, and "Bengale", India or Bangladesh. Synonymy by Peters, 1863, Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1863: 78; Günther, 1864, Rept. Brit. India: 406; Steindachner, 1867, Reise Österreichischen Fregatte Novara, Zool., Amph.: 20.

Rana benghalensis — Kelaart, 1853, Prodr. Faunae Zeylan., 1: 192. Incorrect subsequent spelling.

Dicroglossus adolfi Günther, 1860, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1860: 158. Syntypes: BMNH. Type locality: "Kulu and Simla, Himalaya (2400–4200 feet above the level of the sea", India. Synonymy by Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 17.

Euphlyctis leschenaultii — Fitzinger, 1861 "1860", Sitzungsber. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Phys. Math. Naturwiss. Kl., 42: 414.

Rana cyanophlictis — Mason, 1882, Burma, Ed. 3: 290. Incorrect subsequent spelling.

Rana cyanophlyctis var. seistanica Nikolskii, 1900 "1899", Annu. Mus. Zool. Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Petersbourg, 4: 406. Syntypes: ZISP 2503 (3 specimens), according to Ananjeva, Milto, Barabanov, and Golynsky, 2020, Zootaxa, 4722: 110. Type locality: Neizar in Seistano, Iran [translated from Russian]; probably between Zabol and Varmal, Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran, approx. 30.89 N 61.41 E, according to  Ananjeva, Milto, Barabanov, and Golynsky, 2020, Zootaxa, 4722: 110.

Rana (Rana) cyanophlyctis — Boulenger, 1920, Rec. Indian Mus., 20: 6.

Dicroglossus cyanophlyctis — Deckert, 1938, Sitzungsber. Ges. Naturforsch. Freunde Berlin, 1938: 138.

Rana cyanophlyctis cyanophlyctis — Parker, 1941, Exped. SW Arabia 1937–1938, 1, 1: 5, by implication.

Rana (Rana) cyanophlictis — Guibé, 1950 "1948", Cat. Types Amph. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat.: 37. Incorrect subsequent spelling.

Rana cyanophlictis variety fulvus — De Silva, 1958, Spolia Zeylan., 28: 158. Types: Not designated. Type locality: "from brackish water pools on the islands of Karitivu, Leyden and Punkudutivu off Jaffna (N.P)", Sri Lanka.

Rana cyanophlictis variety flavens — De Silva, 1958, Spolia Zeylan., 28: 158. Types: Not designated. Type locality: "Ratnapura, Ceylon", Sri Lanka.

Rana (Dicroglossus) cyanophlyctis cyanophlytis — Dubois, 1974, Bull. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. Paris, Ser. 3, Zool., 213: 376.

Rana (Euphlyctis) cyanophlyctis — Dubois, 1981, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Suppl., 15: 240.

Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis — Poynton and Broadley, 1985, Ann. Natal Mus., 27: 124, by implication.

Occidozyga (Euphlyctis) cyanophlyctis — Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 59.

Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis — Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 315.

Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis cyanophlyctis — Khan, 1997, Pakistan J. Zool., 29: 108.

Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis microspinulata Khan, 1997, Pakistan J. Zool., 29: 108. Holotype: BMNH 1990.8, by original designation. Type locality: "side pool of a stream on the southwest of Khuzdar (southeast Kalat Division, Balochistan, Pakistan; lat. 27° 53′ N, long. 66° 36′ E)".

Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis seistanica — Dutta, 1997, Amph. India Sri Lanka: 115.

English Names

Studded Frog (Shaw, 1802, Gen. Zool., 3(1): 111).

Small Spotted Frog (Kelaart, 1853, Prodr. Faunae Zeylan., 1: 192).

Skittering Frog (Minton, 1966, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 134: 56; Schleich, Anders, and Kästle, 2002, in Schleich and Kästle (eds.), Amph. Rept. Nepal: 79; Daniels, 2005, Amph. Peninsular India: 179; Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Gururaja, and Bhatta, 2009, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, Occas. Pap., 302: 13).

Skettering Frog (Khan, 1979, Biologia, Lahore, 25: 43).

Skipping Frog (Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 122).

Skipper Frog (de Silva, 2009, Amph. Rep. Sri Lanka Photograph. Guide: 67).

Cyan Five-fingered Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 99).

Indian Skipping Frog (Das and Dutta, 1998, Hamadryad, 23: 64; Daniels, 2005, Amph. Peninsular India: 179; Ahmed, Das, and Dutta, 2009, Amph. Rept. NE India: 35).

Indian Skipper Frog (Mathew and Sen, 2010, Pict. Guide Amph. NE India: 26).

Skipper Frog (Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 98; Daniels, 2005, Amph. Peninsular India: 179).

Seistan Skittering Frog (Euphlyctis cyanophyctis seistanica: Khan, 2002, Bull. Chicago Herpetol. Soc., 37: 160).

Spiny Skittering Frog (Euphlyctis cyanophyctis microspinulata: Khan, 2002, Bull. Chicago Herpetol. Soc., 37: 160).

Water Skipping Frog (Shrestha, 2001, Herpetol. Nepal: 80).

Water Skipper (Daniels, 2005, Amph. Peninsular India: 179).

Green Stream Frog (Nutphund, 2001, Amph. Thailand: 107).

Green Wart Frog (Nguyen, Ho, and Nguyen, 2005, Checklist Amph. Rept. Vietnam: 20).

Distribution

Southeastern Iran, southern Afghanistan, Pakistan (except for the far north), low elevation Nepal, southern Bhutan and India at low to moderate elevations south to Madhya Pradesh and east through Bangladesh and northeastern India to extreme western Myanmar; Sri Lanka (see comment); Malaya; Minh Hai Province, Vietnam.

Comment

See accounts by Boulenger, 1920, Rec. Indian Mus., 20: 12; Bourret, 1942, Batr. Indochine: 237–239, Kirtisinghe, 1957, Amph. Ceylon: 29–32, and Dutta and Manamendra-Arachchi, 1996, Amph. Fauna Sri Lanka: 112–116. See also Murthy, 1968, J. Univ. Poona, 34: 63–71. See comment under Euphlyctis ehrenbergi. Nominal subspecies are remarkably distinctive (DRF). Biju, 2001, Occas. Publ. Indian Soc. Conserv. Biol., 1: 10, reported this species from the Western Ghats of southwestern India. Choudhury, Hussain, Buruah, Saikia, and Sengupta, 2002, Hamadryad, 26: 278, noted the presence of this species in Assam, India. Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 98–103, provided a brief account (as Rana cyanophlyctis). See brief account and photo by Manthey and Grossmann, 1997, Amph. Rept. Südostasiens: 89. Ray, 1999, Mem. Zool. Surv. India, 18: 33–35, provided an account. Orlov, Murphy, Ananjeva, Ryabov, and Ho, 2002, Russ. J. Herpetol., 9: 86, provided the Vietnam record. Anders, 2002, in Schleich and Kästle (eds.), Amph. Rept. Nepal: 221–228, provided an account for the Nepal population. See brief account by Shrestha, 2001, Herpetol. Nepal: 80–81. Taylor, 1962, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 43: 365–378, considered the species part of the fauna of Thailand, but indicated that it might be introduced. Sarkar, Biswas, and Ray, 1992, State Fauna Ser., 3: 83–84, provided a brief account for West Bengal, India. Khan, 2006, Amph. Rept. Pakistan: 56–58, provided an account for Pakistan. Nutphund, 2001, Amph. Thailand: 107, provided a brief characterization and photograph (which Ohler, 2003, Alytes, 21: 101, regarded as not identifiable beyond the level of Limnonectes). Baloutch and Kami, 1995, Amph. Iran: 160–165, provided an account (as Rana cyanophlyctis) for Iran. Dutta, 1997, Amph. India Sri Lanka: 114–116, provided distribution, systematic comments, and partial bibliography. Ao, Bordoloi, and Ohler, 2003, Zoos' Print J., 18: 1117–1125, provided a specific locality for Nagaland, northeastern India. Daniels, 2005, Amph. Peninsular India: 179–182, provided an account for peninsular India. Sarkar and Ray, 2006, In Alfred (ed.), Fauna of Arunachal Pradesh, Part 1: 297–298, provided a brief report for Arunachal Pradesh. Devi and Shamungou, 2006, J. Exp. Zool. India, 9: 317–324, provided a record (as Occidozyga cyanophlyctis) for Manipur, northeastern India. Das and Dutta, 2007, Hamadryad, 31: 154–181, noted several larval descriptions of varying levels of completeness in the literature. Alam, Igawa, Khan, Islam, Kuramoto, Matsui, Kurabayashi, and Sumida, 2008, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 48: 515–527, suggested on the basis of molecular data that more than one species is masquerading under this name, with the name Rana bengalensis likely being available for the Bangladeshi population, although this was rejected by Howlader, Nair, Gopalan, and Merilä, 2015, PLoS One, 10(2: e0116666): 1–13, who named the Bengal population as Euphlyctis kalasgramensis. Ahmed, Das, and Dutta, 2009, Amph. Rept. NE India: 35, provided a brief account for northeastern India. Wogan, Vindum, Wilkinson, Koo, Slowinski, Win, Thin, Kyi, Oo, Lwin, and Shein, 2008, Hamadryad, 33: 86, discussed the dubiousness of previous records for Myanmar but provided a record for Rakhine state, Myanmar, close to the Bangladesh border. Mathew and Sen, 2010, Pict. Guide Amph. NE India: 26–27, provided a bried characterization and photographs. Mahony, Hasan, Kabir, Ahmed, and Hossain, 2009, Hamadryad, 34: 80–94, reported the species from Chittagong and Dhaka divisions, Bangladesh. de Silva, 2009, Amph. Rep. Sri Lanka Photograph. Guide: 67, provided a brief account and color photograph for Sri Lanka. Bopage, Wewelwala, Krvavac, Jovanovic, Safarek, and Pushpamal, 2011, Salamandra, 47: 173–177, reported the species in lowland forest in the Kanneliya Forest of southwestern Sri Lanka. See Shah and Tiwari, 2004, Herpetofauna Nepal: 52, for brief account for Nepal. Hasan, Islam, Khan, Alam, Kurabayashi, Igawa, Kuramoto, and Sumida, 2012, Zool. Sci., Tokyo, 29: 162–172, discussed the possibility of cryptic species, recognized on the basis of molecular evidence. Wangyal, 2013, J. Threatened Taxa, 5: 4776, provided a record from Bhutan. Masroor, 2012, Contr. Herpetol. N. Pakistan: 55–58, provided an account for northern Pakistan. Khajeh, Mohammadi, Ghorbani, Meshkani, Rastegar-Pouyani, and Torkamanzehi, 2014, Acta Herpetol., Firenze, 9: 159–166, reported on mtDNA differentiation across the range and documented candidate lineages and suggested that populations in South India and Sri Lanka should be referred to Eyphlyctis mudigere. Records for Bangladesh have been reassigned to Euphlyctis kalasgramensis by Howlader, Nair, Gopalan, and Merilä, 2015, PLoS One, 10(2: e0116666): 1–13, although the limits of that taxon, which clearly must extend into India, have not been documented. Sivaprasad, 2013, Common Amph. Kerala: 42–43, provided a brief account, photograph, and dot map for Kerala. Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, Fahimi, Broomand, Yazdanian, Najafi-Majd, Hosseinian Yousefkani, Rezazadeh, Hosseinzadeh, Nasrabadi, Rajabizadeh, Mashayekhi, Motesharei, Naderi, and Kazemi, 2015, Asian Herpetol. Res., 6: 257–290, reported on distribution and conservation status in Iran.  Subba, Aravind, and Ravikanth, 2016, Check List, 13(1: 2033): 12, considered the presence of this species in Sikkim, India, to be doubtful. Roy, Begum, and Ahmed, 2019, J. Threatened Taxa, 10: 12943–12944, discussed the range in Arunachal Pradesh, northeastern India, and provided localities. O'Connell, Aryal, Sherchan, Dhakal, Chaudhary, and Karmacharya, 2019, J. Nat. Hist., London, 53: 1421-1437, reported on the Kathmandu Valley population, Nepal. Deuti, Sethy, and Ray, 2014, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, 114: 127–128, provided a  brief account for the population of Odhisa and Andhra Pradesh, India. Sreekumar and Dinesh, 2020, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, 120: 33–40, discussed the range in Maharashtra, India, in terms of agro-climatic zones. Gorule, Gosavi, Kharat, and Verma, 2020, J. Threatened Taxa, 12: 16136–16142, described the osteology for a population in the Western Ghats of South India. Prasad, Gautam, Gupta, Murthy, Ramesh, Shinde, and Das, 2020, Zootaxa, 4851: 450–476, reported on morphology and advertisement call for a population in the Panna Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, central India. Gautam, Chalise, Thapa, and Bhattarai, 2020, IRCF Rept. & Amph., 27: 18–28, briefly discussed abundance and elevational range in the Ghandruk region of central Nepal. 

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