Asterophryinae Günther, 1858

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Microhylidae > Subfamily: Asterophryinae
372 species

Asterophrydidae Günther, 1858, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1858: 346. Type genus: Asterophrys Tschudi, 1838.

Asterophrydina — Mivart, 1869, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1869: 294.

Xenorhinidae Mivart, 1869, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1869: 286. Type genus: Xenorhina Peters, 1863.

Genyophrynidae Boulenger, 1890, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1890: 326. Type genus: Genyophryne Boulenger, 1890. Synonymy 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: 225.

Genyophryninae — Gadow, 1901, Amphibia and Reptiles: 139.

Symphignathinae Méhely, 1901, Termés. Füzetek, 24: 219. Type species: Not designated. Unavailable family-group name for reason of not being based on a valid generic name. Original delimited to include Xenorhina, Mantophryne, and Gnathophryne.

Genyophrynidae — Van Kampen, 1919, Bijdr. Dierkd., 21: 51.

Asterophryidae — Fejérváry, 1923, Ann. Hist. Nat. Mus. Natl. Hungarici, 20: 181.

Asterophrynae — Fejérváry, 1923, Ann. Hist. Nat. Mus. Natl. Hungarici, 20: 181.

Sphenophryninae Noble, 1931, Biol. Amph.: 531. Type genus: Sphenophryne Peters and Doria, 1878, by monotypy. Synonymy with Genyophryninae by Dubois, 1983, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 52: 274.

Asterophrynidae — Parker, 1940, Novit. Zool., 42: 1.

Asterophryninae — Tamarunov, 1964, in Orlov (ed.), Osnovy Paleontologii, 12: 133.

Phrynomantini Burton, 1986, Rec. S. Aust. Mus., 19: 405–450. Type genus: "Phrynomantis Peters, 1867". See nomenclatural comment under Callulops.

Asterophrynini — Burton, 1986, Rec. S. Aust. Mus., 19: 405–450.

Barygenini Burton, 1986, Rec. S. Aust. Mus., 19: 405–450. Type genus: Barygenys Parker, 1936.

Xenorhinini — Burton, 1986, Rec. S. Aust. Mus., 19: 405–450.

Callulopini Dubois, 1988, Alytes, 7: 3. Type genus: Callulops Boulenger, 1888.

Asterophryidae — Bossuyt and Roelants, 2009, in Hedges and Kumar (eds.), Timetree of Life: 358.

Gastrophrynoidini Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 209. Type genus: Gastrophrynoides Noble, 1926. 

Nomina inquirenda - Name(s) unassigned to a living or extinct population

Microbatrachus pusillus Roux, 1910, Abh. Senckenb. Naturforsch. Ges., 33: 228. Holotype: NHMB 2732 according to Forcart, 1946, Verh. Naturforsch. Ges. Basel, 57: 133. Type locality: "Pobdjetur, Terangan", Aru Is., Indonesia. * Sphenophryne pusilla—Tyler, 1978, J. Nat. Hist., London, 12: 457-460 (Aru Land Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 92. Nomen dubium discussed by Zweifel, 2000, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 253: 94.)

Microbatrachus Roux, 1910, Abh. Senckenb. Naturforsch. Ges., 33: 228. Type species: Microbatrachus pusillus Roux, 1910, by monotypy. Nomen dubium discussed by Zweifel, 2000, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 253: 94.

Common Names

None noted.

Distribution

Central Thailand and montane central Vietnam to Peninsular Malaysia, and in Bornean Malaysia in Sarawak and Sabah; presumably will be found in northwestern Kalimantan, Indonesia; southern Philippines, Sulawesi, and Bali, eastward through Indonesia and New Guinea to New Britain and extreme northern Australia; Moluccas.

Comment

This subfamily was combined with Sphenophryninae (ca. Genyophryninae of later authors) by Savage, 1973, in Vial (ed.), Evol. Biol. Anurans: 351–445, on the basis of biogeography but Zweifel, 1972, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 148: 411–546, retained both subfamilies. For review, revision, and synonymies for all Asterophryinae (excluding Genyophryninae) species recognized at that time, see Zweifel, 1972, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 148: 411–546. See Burton, 1986, Rec. S. Aust. Mus., 19: 405–450, for a discussion of phylogeny and recognition of tribes of Asterophryinae prior to synonymy of Genyophryninae. See Dubois, 1988, Alytes, 7: 1–5, for a discussion of nomenclature regarding tribe names. Sumida, Allison, and Nishioka, 2000, Biochem. Syst. Ecol., 28: 733, suggested on the basis of allozyme distance that Barygenys (Asterophryinae) is more closely related to Cophixalus than Cophixalus is with Sphenophryne (both in Genyophryninae), suggesting that subfamilial assignment or even the basic formulation of the subfamilies needed to be revisited. 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, provided molecular evidence for the paraphyly of Genyophryninae with respect to former Asterophryinae and placed them together in one subfamily, for which the oldest name is Asterophryinae. Köhler and Günther, 2008, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 47: 353–365, provided a molecular tree of Asterophryinae that corroborated the general result of Frost et al. (2006) and also provided evidence for the nonmonophyly of several of the nominal genera. (See genus records for additional comments.) Hoskin, 2008, Mem. Queensland Mus., 52: 233–237, provided a key to the species of Australia. Bossuyt and Roelants, 2009, in Hedges and Kumar (eds.), Timetree of Life: 357–364, considered this taxon a distinct family based on its Mesozoic origin. Günther, Stelbrink, and von Rintelen, 2010, Zoosyst. Evol., Berlin, 86: 245–256, discussed molecular relationships among a subset of the genera. Matsui, Hamidy, Belabut, Ahmad, Panha, Sudin, Khonsue, Oh, Yong, Jiang, and Nishikawa, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 167–176, suggested on an analysis of mtDNA that Gastrophrynoides (Microhylidae, unassigned to subfamily) may be related to Asterophryinae, their exemplar being Oreophryne monticola. Anstis, Parker, Hawkes, Morris, and Richards, 2011, Zootaxa, 3052: 1–50, reported on the ontogeny of direct development in this subfamily, specifically reporting on Austrochaperina, Cophixalus and Oreophryne. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543–583, suggested that Asterophryinae is the sister taxon of Melanobatrachinae. Rivera, Kraus, Allison, and Butler, 2017, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 112: 1–11, reported on molecular phylogenetics of the subfamily, noting non-monophyly of a number of genera, notably Copiula, Oreophryne, Liophryne, Asterophrys, Austrochaperina, Xenorhina, and Paedophryne. Suwannapoom, Sumontha, Tunprasert, Ruangsuwan, Pawangkhanant, Korost, and Poyarkov, 2018, PeerJ, 4422: 1–42, reported on molecular phylogenetics of generic exemplars of the subfamily as part of documenting the placement of Siamophryne, also reporting on a number of nonmonophyletic genera (e.g., Oreophryne, Asterophrys, Austraochaperina, Sphenophryne). Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 418, solved the problem of a chaotic and misleading asterophryine taxonomy by placing all asterophryines, with the exception of Siamophryne, Vietnamophryne, and Gastrophrynoides into the synonymy of Asterophrys. The problem, of course, is this places over half of all microhylid diversity into one genus, where a number of useful monophyletic groups could have been drawn without a great deal of trouble. 

Contained taxa (372 sp.):

Aphantophryne Fry, 1917 (5 sp.)
Asterophrys Tschudi, 1838 (8 sp.)
Austrochaperina Fry, 1912 (29 sp.)
Barygenys Parker, 1936 (9 sp.)
Callulops Boulenger, 1888 (29 sp.)
Choerophryne Van Kampen, 1914 (39 sp.)
Cophixalus Boettger, 1892 (71 sp.)
Copiula Méhely, 1901 (15 sp.)
Gastrophrynoides Noble, 1926 (2 sp.)
Hylophorbus Macleay, 1878 (17 sp.)
Mantophryne Boulenger, 1897 (5 sp.)
Oreophryne Boettger, 1895 (73 sp.)
Paedophryne Kraus, 2010 (7 sp.)
Siamophryne Suwannapoom, Sumontha, Tunprasert, Ruangsuwan, Pawangkhanant, Korost, and Poyarkov, 2018 (1 sp.)
Sphenophryne Peters and Doria, 1878 (15 sp.)
Vietnamophryne Poyarkov, Suwannapoom, Pawangkhanant, Aksornneam, Duong, Korost, and Che, 2018 (6 sp.)
Xenorhina Peters, 1863 (41 sp.)

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