Xenophrys Günther, 1864

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Megophryidae > Subfamily: Megophryinae > Genus: Xenophrys
28 species

English Names

Strange-horned Toads (Qi, Lyu, Wang, Mo, Zeng, Zeng, Dai, Li, Grismer, and Wang, 2021, Zootaxa, 5072: 430). 

Horned Frogs (Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Deepak, and Kulkarni, 2023, Fauna India Checklist, vers. 5.0 : 6).

Distribution

Tropical mainland South, Southeast, and East Asia, including Nepal, Bhutan, northeastern India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and southern China (Xizang, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Guangdong, Hunan, and Jiangxi). 

Comment

See comments under Megophryidae and MegophrysKhonsue and Thirakhupt, 2001, Nat. Hist. J. Chulalongkorn Univ., 1: 75, Ohler, 2003, Alytes, 21: 23, and Delorme, Dubois, Grosjean, and Ohler, 2006, Alytes, 24: 6–21, had recognized Xenophrys but the earlier concept was shown by Li, Guo, and Wang, 2011, Curr. Zool., Chengdu, 57: 93–100, to be strongly paraphyletic. Mahony, Foley, Biju, and Teeling, 2017, Mol. Biol. Evol., 34: 744–771, reported on the molecular phylogenetics of Megophryinae, recognizing five monophyletic species groups within Xenophrys: (1) Xenophrys aceras group [now the genus Grillitschia]; (2) Xenophrys lekaguli group [now Jingophrys]; (3) Xenophrys megacephala group; (4) Xenophrys major group; and (5) Xenophrys vegrandis group. Chen, Zhou, Poyarkov, Stuart, Brown, Lathrop, Wang, Yuan, Jiang, Hou, Chen, Suwannapoom, Nguyen, Duong, Papenfuss, Murphy, Zhang, and Che, 2017, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 106: 28–43, provided a detailed molecular study of phylogeny and also recognized a monophyletic XenophrysLyu, Zeng, Wang, Liu, Huang, Li, and Wang, 2021, Zootaxa, 4927: 9–40, also provided an molecular phylogenetic tree. The species groups of Mahony et al (2017) were reported and additional species included by Qi, Lyu, Wang, Mo, Zeng, Zeng, Dai, Li, Grismer, and Wang, 2021, Zootaxa, 5072: 430, who recognized and augmented  the species groups of Mahony et al. (2017): (1) Xenophrys aceras group (Xenophrys aceras and Xenophrys longipes) [now Grillitschia]; (2) Xenophrys lekaguli group (Xenophrys lekaguli, Xenophrys parva, and Xenophrys takensis) [now Jingophrys]; (3) Xenophrys megacephala group (Xenophrys ancrae, Xenophrys awuh, Xenophrys dzukou, Xenophrys megacephala, Xenophrys numhbumaeng, Xenophrys oropedion, Xenophrys serchhipii, and Xenophrys zunhebotoensis); (4) Xenophrys major group (Xenophrys flavipunctata, Xenophrys glandulosa, Xenophrys himalayana, Xenophrys major, Xenophrys mangshanensis, Xenophrys maosonensis, Xenophrys medogensis, Xenophrys monticola, Xenophrys oreocrypta, Xenophrys periosa, Xenophrys robusta, and Xenophrys zhangi); and (5) Xenophrys vegrandis group (Xenophrys vegrandis, Xenophrys yeae, and Xenophrys zhoui). Xenophrys auralensis, Xenophrys damrei, and Xenophrys pachyproctus were unassigned to species group. Lyu, Qi, Wang, Zhang, Zhao, Zeng, Wan, Yang, Mo, and Wang, 2023, Zool. Res., Kunming, 44: 380–450, provided an identification key and accounts for the Chinese species.  

Contained taxa (28 sp.):

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