Litoria rubella (Gray, 1842)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Hylidae > Subfamily: Pelodryadinae > Genus: Litoria > Species: Litoria rubella

Hyla rubella Gray, 1842, Zool. Misc., Part 2: 56. Syntypes: Not designated, but BMNH 1947.2.24.7–9 (formerly 42.2.24.19, 42.2.24.20–21, according to Condit, 1964, J. Ohio Herpetol. Soc., 4: 95); BMNH 1947.2.24.9 designated lectotype by Ingram and Corben, 1990, Mem. Queensland Mus., 28: 475. Type locality: "North coast of Australia; Port Essington", Northern Territory, Australia. Secondary homonym of Rana rubella Latreille IN Sonnini de Manoncourt and Latreille, 1801 "An. X", Hist. Nat. Rept., 2: 160 (prevailing usage maintained under Art. 23.9.1 of ICZN, 1999, Internatl. Code Zool. Nomencl., Ed. 4: 28).

Hyla (Litoria) mystacina Keferstein, 1867, Nachr. Ges. Wiss. Göttingen, 18: 356. Holotype ZFMK 28810 (formerly ZMG) according to Böhme and Bischoff, 1984, Bonn. Zool. Monogr., 19: 182. Type locality: "Australien". Synonymy by Cogger, Cameron, and Cogger, 1983, Zool. Cat. Aust., Amph. Rept., 1: 49. Formerly considered a synonym of Litoria freycineti by Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 356.

Hyla nigrogularis Keferstein, 1867, Nachr. Ges. Wiss. Göttingen, 18: 358. Nomen nudum. Synonymy by Cogger, Cameron, and Cogger, 1983, Zool. Cat. Aust., Amph. Rept., 1: 49.

Litoria rubellaTyler, 1971, Univ. Kansas Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist., 19: 354.

Colleeneremia rubellaWells and Wellington, 1985, Aust. J. Herpetol., Suppl. Ser., 1: 4.

Common Names

Desert Tree Frog (Cogger, 1975, Rept. Amph. Australia: 105; Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 64; Tyler, Smith, and Johnstone, 1984, Frogs W. Aust.: 74; Reynolds, 2007, N. Terr. Nat., 19: 63).

Naked Treefrog (Ingram, Nattrass, and Czechura, 1993, Mem. Queensland Mus., 33: 222).

Desert Treefrog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 60; Reynolds, 2007, N. Terr. Nat., 19: 63).

Red Tree Frog (Waite, 1929, Rept. Amph. S. Aust.: 263; Barker, Grigg, and Tyler, 1995, Field Guide Aust. Frogs., Ed. 2: 56; Reynolds, 2007, N. Terr. Nat., 19: 63).

Seagull Frog (Reynolds, 2007, N. Terr. Nat., 19: 63).

Little Red Tree Frog (Reynolds, 2007, N. Terr. Nat., 19: 63; Tyler and Doughty, 2009, Field Guide Frogs W. Aust., 4th ed.: 82).

Brown Tree Frog (Reynolds, 2007, N. Terr. Nat., 19: 63).

Distribution

Northern two thirds of Australia and southern Papua New Guinea and adjacent southeastern Papua, Indonesia; Timor I. (East Timor and Indonesia).

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Australia, Indonesia, Indonesia - Papua Region, Papua New Guinea

Comment

For discussion see Copland, 1957, Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales, 82: 46; and Tyler, 1978, Amph. S. Aust.: 34–36. In the Litoria rubella group of Tyler and Davies, 1978, Aust. J. Zool., Suppl. Ser., 27 (63): 41. Wells and Wellington, 1985, Aust. J. Herpetol., Suppl. Ser., 1: 5, without discussion, considered this to be a complex of cryptic species. Menzies, 2006, Frogs New Guinea & Solomon Is.: 123, provided a brief account and also suggested that in Australia this name probably covers a complex of six species. See account by Tyler and Doughty, 2009, Field Guide Frogs W. Aust., 4th ed.: 82. See brief account by Tyler and Knight, 2009, Field Guide Frogs Aust.: 32–33, in which four likely distinct species in this complex are pictured. Cutajar, Portway, Gillard, and Rowley, 2022, Tech. Rep. Aust. Mus. Online, 36: 31, provided a polygon distribution map. Dias, 2023, J. Morphol., 284(e21651): 1–7, described larval buccopharyngeal morphology. 

External links:

Please note: these links will take you to external websites not affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History. We are not responsible for their content.