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

Sphenophryne Peters and Doria, 1878

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Microhylidae > Subfamily: Asterophryinae > Genus: Sphenophryne

15 species

Sphenophryne Peters and Doria, 1878, Ann. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Genova, 13: 430. Type species: Sphenophryne cornuta Peters and Doria, 1878, by monotypy.

Genyophryne Boulenger, 1890, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1890: 326. Type species: Genyophryne thomsoni Boulenger, 1890, by monotypy. Synonymy by Rivera, Kraus, Allison, and Butler, 2017, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 112: 4.

Liophryne Boulenger, 1897, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 6, 19: 11. Type species: Liophryne rhododactyla Boulenger, 1897, by subsequent designation of Parker, 1934, Monogr. Frogs Fam. Microhylidae: 152. Synonymy by Rivera, Kraus, Allison, and Butler, 2017, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 112: 4.

Oxydactyla Van Kampen, 1913, Nova Guinea, 9: 464. Type species: Oxydactyla brevicrus Van Kampen, 1913, by monotypy. Synonymy by Rivera, Kraus, Allison, and Butler, 2017, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 112: 4.

Common Names

Land Frogs (Sphenophryne: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 92).

Toothless Frogs (Genyophryne [no longer recognized: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 89).

Distribution

New Guinea.

Comment

Rivera, Kraus, Allison, and Butler, 2017, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 112: 1–11, provided a phylogenetic analysis of the Asterophryinae, and placed Genyophryne, Oxydactyla, and Liophryne into synonymy to render a monophyletic taxonomy.

Revision of Sphenophryne in Zweifel, 2000, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 253: 1–130. Köhler and Günther, 2008, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 47: 353–365, suggested on the basis of molecular evidence that this taxon is the possible sister taxon of Liophryne dentata. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543–583, confirmed this result.

Oxydactylus was removed from the synonymy of Sphenophryne by Zweifel, 2000, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 253: 74, where it had been placed by Parker, 1934, Monogr. Frogs Fam. Microhylidae: 152; Loveridge, 1948, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 101: 422. Revision of Oxydactyla in Zweifel, 2000, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 253: 1–130. Köhler and Günther, 2008, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 47: 353–ƒ365, suggested on the basis of molecular evidence that Oxydactyla is part of a monophyletic group containing Liophryne rhododactyla, Liophryne dentata, and Sphenophryne. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543–583, came to a different conclusion; see comment under Liophryne.

Köhler and Günther, 2008, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 47: 353–365, suggested on the basis of molecular evidence that Genyophryne is relatively basal in the asterophryine tree and possibly the sister taxon of Liophryne schlaginhaufeni. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543–583, confirmed this result.

Liophryne was removed from the synonymy of Sphenophryne by Zweifel, 2000, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 253: 56, where it had been placed by Parker, 1934, Monogr. Frogs Fam. Microhylidae: 152. Revision in Zweifel, 2000, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 253: 1–130. Köhler and Günther, 2008, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 47: 353–365, found Liophryne to be deeply polyphyletic, with Liophryne schlaginhaufeni to be near the base of Asterophryinae and Liophryne rhododactyla and Liophryne dentata to form a nonmonophyletic group with a monophyletic group with Oxydactyla and Sphenophryne. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543–583, suggested that Liophryne schlaginhaufeni is the sister taxon of Genyophryne thompsoni and Liophryne rhododactylus is the sister taxon of a group composed of Liophryne dentata, Xenorhina obesa (rendering Xenorhina polyphyletic), Sphenophryne cornuta, and Hylophorbus rufescens. Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 418, recovered Sphenophryne to be polyphyletic, one species, Sphenophryne schlaginhaufeni extending from near the base of asterophryines and a distant monophyletic group, composed of Sphenophryne cornuta, Sphenophryne crassa, Sphenophryne dentata, and Sphenophryne rhododactyla. In response to the chaotic non-monophyly of most of the asterophryine genera, these authors place all genera that they had sampled, other than Gastrophrynoides, into the synonymy of Asterophrys.

Contained taxa (15 sp.):

Sphenophryne allisoni (Zweifel, 2000)

Sphenophryne alpestris (Zweifel, 2000)

Sphenophryne brevicrus (Van Kampen, 1913)

Sphenophryne coggeri (Zweifel, 2000)

Sphenophryne cornuta Peters and Doria, 1878

Sphenophryne crassa Zweifel, 1956

Sphenophryne dentata Tyler and Menzies, 1971

Sphenophryne magnitympanum (Kraus and Allison, 2009)

Sphenophryne miniafia (Kraus, 2014)

Sphenophryne rhododactyla (Boulenger, 1897)

Sphenophryne rubra (Zweifel, 2000)

Sphenophryne schlaginhaufeni Wandolleck, 1911

Sphenophryne similis (Zweifel, 2000)

Sphenophryne stenodactyla (Zweifel, 2000)

Sphenophryne thomsoni (Boulenger, 1890)

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