Hylarana Tschudi, 1838

English Names

Golden-backed Frogs (Du Preez and Carruthers, 2009, Compl. Guide Frogs S. Afr.: 450).

Distribution

Northeastern India to Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar through Thailand and Indochina to southern China, Taiwan, and Indonesia (Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, Borneo, Sulu Archipelago), and Palawan (Philippines); Nicobar Islands (India), 

Comment

Hylarana was considered a genus (and redelimited) most recently by Oliver, Prendini, Kraus, and Raxworthy, 2015, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 90: 176–192, who revised the group, recognizing Abavorana, Pulchrana, Chalcorana, Amnirana, Humerana, a much reduced Hylarana, Sylvirana, Hydrophylax, and Papurana as genera. Prior to that revision  Che, Pang, Zhao, Wu, Zhao, and Zhang, 2007, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 43: 1-13; Chen, Murphy, Lathrop, Ngo, Orlov, Ho, and Somorjai, 2005, Herpetol. J., 15: 237, had recognized a much larger Hylarana out of the genera recognized by the revision of 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: 248, who provided a long taxonomic history of this nominal taxon and a partial revision. Bossuyt, Brown, Hillis, Cannatella, and Milinkovitch, 2006, Syst. Biol., 55: 584, provided evidence that Hylarana (sensu Frost et al., 2006) is imbedded within a paraphyletic Sylvirana (which has now been redelimited itself). Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 324, on the basis of subjective similarity considered his subgenera Hydrophylax and Amnirana to be in a subsection Hydrophylax of his section Hylarana, and Chalcorana in the same section, but subsection Hylarana. Matsui, Shimada, Ota, and Tanaka-Ueno, 2005, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 37: 733-742, and 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: 1-370, found this system of sections and subsections (and some subgenera) to be poorly correlated with evolutionary history. Bossuyt, Brown, Hillis, Cannatella, and Milinkovitch, 2006, Syst. Biol., 55: 584, provided evidence for the polyphyly of Hydrophylax (sensu Frost et al., 2006); in their results Hydrophylax luzonensis (now Sanguirana luzonensis) is most closely related to Sanguirana sanguinea and with Hydrophylax galamensis and Hydrophylax chalconota imbedded within another group containing Pulchrana and at least one species of Sylvirana (nicobariensis). Che, Pang, Zhao, Wu, Zhao, and Zhang, 2007, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 43: 1-13, placed Hydrophylax (sensu Frost et al., 2006) into the synonymy of Hylarana. See comment under Humerana, which likely renders Hylarana, in the sense of this catalogue, paraphyletic. 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: 250, retained Pulchrana as a genus, pending its phylogenetic placement, and rejected the system of sections and subsections suggested by Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61. Bossuyt, Brown, Hillis, Cannatella, and Milinkovitch, 2006, Syst. Biol., 55: 584, provided evidence that Pulchrana is imbedded within a paraphyletic Sylvirana. Che, Pang, Zhao, Wu, Zhao, and Zhang, 2007, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 43: 1-13, provided evidence that Pulchrana is imbedded within Hydrophylax (including Chalcorana) of Frost et al. (2006) and they regarded it as a junior synonym of Hylarana. Bossuyt, Brown, Hillis, Cannatella, and Milinkovitch, 2006, Syst. Biol., 55: 584, provided evidence for the paraphyly of Sylvirana, with with respect to Pulchrana, Hylarana (e.g., Hylarana erythraea), and elements of Hydrophylax (e.g., Hydrophylax galamensis, Hydrophylax chalconota, sensu Frost et al., 2006) imbedded within it. Che, Pang, Zhao, Wu, Zhao, and Zhang, 2007, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 43: 3, regarded Sylvirana as a junior synonym of Hylarana. Kraus and Allison, 2007, Herpetol. Monogr., 21: 33-75, reviewed the Hylarana papua species group (as Rana papua) in Papua New Guinea. Fei, Ye, Jiang, and Xie, 2008, Acta Zootaxon. Sinica, 33: 199-206, provided a key to the species of the Hylarana nigrovittata group in China. See comment under Rana cangyuanensis. Wiens, Sukumaran, Pyron, and Brown, 2009, Evolution, 63: 1217-1231, presented results that suggest that Hylarana (sensu Che et al., 2007) is paraphyletic with respect to Sanguirana, Glandirana, Rana, and Lithobates, suggesting that partitions of this nominal taxon should be expected. Du Preez and Carruthers, 2009, Compl. Guide Frogs S. Afr.: 450-455, provided accounts and a key for the species of southern Africa. Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2009, Fauna Sinica, Amph. 3: 1124-1196, provided keys and accounts and suggested a system of subgenera (including Babina of this catalog) and species groups not formally substantiated by synapomorphy. Kurabayashi, Yoshikawa, Sato, Hayashi, Oumi, Fujii, and Sumida, 2010, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 56: 543-553, suggested that Hylarana is close to Glandirana. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543-583, confirmed the likely monophyly (see comments under Humerana and Pterorana) of Hylarana although this is obscured by their adoption of an antiquated and non-monophyletic taxonomy. Biju, Garg, Mahony, Wijayathilaka, Senevirathne, and Meegaskumbura, 2014, Contr. Zool., Amsterdam, 83: 269–335, revised the delimited the Hylarana aurantiaca group (now Indosylvirana) of India, the Hylarana flavescens group (now Indosylvirana) of India, Hylarana malabarica group (now Hydrophylax) of India and Sri Lanka, and the Hylarana temporalis group (now Indosylvirana) of Sri Lanka. 

Contained taxa (4 sp.):

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