Raorchestes Biju, Shouche, Dubois, Dutta, and Bossuyt, 2010

Common Names

Rao’s Oriental Shrub Frogs (Garg, Suyesh, Das, Bee, and Biju, 2021, PeerJ, 9 (e10791): 44). 

Bush Frogs (Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Deepak, and Kulkarni, 2023, Fauna India Checklist, vers. 5.0 : 13).

Distribution

Southern India to Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos to southern China, Vietnam, Cambodia, and West Malaysia.

Comment

Raorchestes was considered in the original publication (Biju, Shouche, Dubois, Dutta, and Bossuyt, 2010, Curr. Sci., Bangalore, 98: 1120) to be the sister taxon of a restricted Pseudophilautus, which was considered to be restricted to Sri Lanka. Li, Che, Murphy, Zhao, Zhao, Rao, and Zhang, 2009, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 53: 509 –522, had considered Pseudophilautus to encompass all species including in Pseudophilautus and Raorchestes sensu Biju, Shouche, Dubois, Dutta, and Bossuyt, 2010, so the issue of reciprocal monophyly is critical to the concept of both genera. See comment under Pseudophilautus for literature relevant to this taxon. Li, Che, Murphy, Zhao, Zhao, Rao, and Zhang, 2009, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 53: 509–522, and Yu, Rao, Zhang, and Yang, 2009, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 50: 571–579, produced results consistent with the recognition of both Raoarchestes and Pseudophilautus. See comment under Pseudophilautus. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543–583, provided a tree of examplar species as part of their study of Genbank sequences, confirmed the placement of a monophyletic Raorchestes as the sister taxon of Pseudophilautus, but employed an antiquated taxonomy that obscures this result. Li, Li, Klaus, Rao, Hillis, and Zhang, 2013, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 110: 3441–3446, suggested on the basis of a Bayesian analysis that Raorchestes is the sister taxon of Kurixalus. This makes for novel ideas of the evolution of direct-development (see comment under Pseudophilautus). Vijayakumar, Menezes, Jayarajan, and Shanker, 2016, Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. B, Biol. Sci., 283 (20161011): 1–8, reported on biogeography of Raorchestes within the Western Ghats. Padhye, Sayyed, Jadhav, and Dahanukar, 2013, J. Threatened Taxa, 5: 4913–4931, provided a tree of the species based on 16s rRNA sequences. Hasan, Islam, Khan, Igawa, Alam, Tjong, Kurniawan, Joshy, Yong, Belabut, Kurabayashi, Kuramoto, and Sumida, 2014, Turkish J. Zool., 38: 397, suggested on the basis of 16S mtDNA analysis that Raorchestes may be paraphyletic with respect to Pseudophilautus. Vijayakumar, Dinesh, Prabhu, and Shanker, 2014, Zootaxa, 3893: 451–488, reported on relationships within the Western Ghats, named nine species, and recognized 15 clades of species within the Western Ghats complex: 1) Coonoorensis clade: comprising two lineages, Raorchestes coonoorensis and an unnamed deeply divergent sister lineage complex; 2) Charius clade: comprised of two lineages, Raorchestes charius and a shallow divergent unnamed lineage; 3) Chromasynchysi clade: comprised of Raorchestes chromasynchysi and four shallow divergent lineages, including Raorchestes aff. ravii; 4) Tinniens clade: comprised of four lineages, Raorchestes tinniens, Raorchestes montanus and two sympatric shallow divergent potential lineages, one unnamed and the other being Raorchestes primarrumpfi; 5) Signatus clade: comprising three lineages including Raorchestes signatus and two moderately divergent unnamed lineages; 6) Hassanensis clade: comprising two shallow divergent potential lineages: Raorchestes ponmudi, Raorchestes hassanensis and Raorchestes emeraldi; 7) Bombayensis clade: comprised of five lineages including Raorchestes bombayensis, Raorchestes tuberohumerus, Raorchestes ghatei, Raorchestes aff. terebrans from Eastern Ghats Escarpment, and Raorchestes leucolatus;. 8) Travancoricus clade: comprised of six lineages including Raorchestes travancoricus, Raorchestes luteolus, Raorchestes agasthyaensis, Raorchestes kadalarensis, Raorchestes chlorosomma, and a deeply divergent unnamed lineage; 9) Anili clade: comprised of five lineages including Raorchestes anili, Raorchestes sushili, Raorchestes kakachi, Raorchestes kaikatti and an unnamed divergent lineage; 10) Ochlandrae clade: comprised of five lineages including Raorchestes ochlandrae, Raorchestes chalazodes, Raorchestes manohari, Raorchestes uthamani and Raorchestes flaviocularis;. 11) Beddomii clade: comprised of seven lineages including Raorchestes beddomii, Raorchestes munnarensis, Raorchestes theurkaufi, Raorchestes dubois, Raorchestes resplendens and two shallow divergent unnamed lineages; 12) Chotta clade: comprised of three deeply divergent lineages, Raorchestes chotta, Raorchestes archeos, and Raorchestes blandus; 13) Nerostagona clade: comprised of Raorchestes nerostagona and an unnamed sister lineage; 14) Graminirupes clade: comprised of Raorchestes graminirupes, Raorchestes johnceei, and an unnamed divergent lineage; and 15) Glandulosus clade: comprised of four deeply divergent lineages, Raorchestes glandulosus, Raorchestes akroparallagi, Raorchestes jayarami, Raorchestes bobingeri and a shallow divergent unnamed lineage. Vijayakumar, Menezes, Jayarajan, and Shanker, 2016, Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. B, Biol. Sci., 283 (20161011): 1–8, reported on biogeography and philogenetics in the Western Ghats of southern India. Garg, Suyesh, Das, Bee, and Biju, 2021, PeerJ, 9 (e10791): 1–78, discussed phylogenetics of the species and delimited (and redelimited) species groups on the basis of molecular, vocalization, and morphological characters: (1) Raorchestes anili group: Raorchestes anili, Raorchestes kaikatti, Raorchestes kakachi, and Raorchestes sushili; (2) Raorchestes aureus group: Raorchestes aureus and Raorchestes lechiya; (3) Raorchestes beddomii group: Raorchestes beddomii, Raorchestes dubois, Raorchestes resplendens, Raorchestes munnarensis, and Raorchestes theuerkaufi; (4) Raorchestes bombayensis group: Raorchestes bombayensis, Raorchestes ghatei, Raorchestes kakkayamensis, Raorchestes leucolatus, Raorchestes sanctisilvaticus, and Raorchestes tuberohumerus; (5) Raorchestes chalazodes group: Raorchestes chalazodes, Raorchestes flaviocularis, Raorchestes ochlandrae, Raorchestes manohari, and Raorchestes uthamani; (6) Raorchestes charius group: Raorchestes charius, Raorchestes coonoorensis, Raorchestes drutaahu, Raorchestes griet, Raorchestes honnametti, Raorchestes kollimalai, and Raorchestes marki; (7) Raorchestes chotta group: Raorchestes archeos, Raorchestes. blandus, and Raorchestes chotta; (8) Raorchestes chromasynchysi group: Raorchestes chromasynchysi, Raorchestes ravii, Raorchestes sanjappai, Raorchestes silentvalley, and Raorchestes vellikkannan; (9) Raorchestes flaviventris group: Raorchestes flaviventris and Raorchestes ponmudi; (10) Raorchestes glandulosus group: Raorchestes akroparallagi, Raorchestes bobingeri, Raorchestes glandulosus, and Raorchestes jayarami; Raorchestes graminirupes group: Raorchestes graminirupes and Raorchestes johnceei; Raorchestes nerostagona group: Raorchestes keirasabinae, Raorchestes nerostagona, and provisionally Raorchestes crustai; Raorchestes signatus group: Raorchestes signatus and Raorchestes thodai; Raorchestes tinniens group: Raorchestes montanus, Raorchestes primarrumpfi, and Raorchestes tinniens; Raorchestes travancoricus group: Raorchestes agasthyaensis, Raorchestes chlorosomma, Raorchestes kadalarensis, Raorchestes luteolus, and Raorchestes travancoricus. 

Contained taxa (76 sp.):

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