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

Cacosterninae Noble, 1931

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Pyxicephalidae > Subfamily: Cacosterninae

76 species

Cacosterninae Noble, 1931, Biol. Amph.: 540. Type genus: Cacosternum Boulenger, 1887. Given precedence over Hemimantidae Hoffmann, 1878, and placed on the Official List of Family-Group Names in Zoology, by Anon., 1999, Opinion 1921, Anonymous, 1999, Bull. Zool. Nomencl., 56: 96–100. Junior subjective synonym of Phynobatrachinae by action of First Revisor, Dubois, 1994, Bull. Zool. Nomencl., 51: 240–246.

Tomopternini Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 56. Type genus: Tomopterna Duméril and Bibron, 1841. 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: 240.

Tomopterninae — Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 336.

Cacosternidae — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 232.

Anhydrophryninae Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 232. Type genus: Anhydrophryne Hewitt, 1919.

Cacosternini — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 233. Tribe.

Cacoternina — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 233. Subtribe.

Poyntoniina Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 233. Type genus: Poyntonia Channing and Boycott, 1989. Subtribe.

Natalobatrachini Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 233. Type genus: Natalobatrachus Hewitt, 1912.

Strongylopini — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 234. Tribe.

English Names

None noted.

Distribution

Subsaharan Africa.

Geographics occurrence

Natural resident: Angola, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Congo, Republic of the, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Comment

Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543–583, provided a tree of exemplars that confirmed much of earlier work although suggesting polyphyly of Strongylopus (see comments under Amietia and Strongylopus grayii).

Contained taxa (76 sp.):

Amietia Dubois, 1987 (16 sp.)

Anhydrophryne Hewitt, 1919 (3 sp.)

Arthroleptella Hewitt, 1926 (10 sp.)

Cacosternum Boulenger, 1887 (16 sp.)

Microbatrachella Hewitt, 1926 (1 sp.)

Natalobatrachus Hewitt and Methuen, 1912 (1 sp.)

Nothophryne Poynton, 1963 (5 sp.)

Poyntonia Channing and Boycott, 1989 (1 sp.)

Strongylopus Tschudi, 1838 (6 sp.)

Tomopterna Duméril and Bibron, 1841 (17 sp.)

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