Hyla

***Hyla*** is a genus of tree frogs in the family Hylidae. Over the years, scientists have changed their minds about which frog species should be in _Hyla_ and which should be in _Litoria_, _Ranoidea_ or other genera.  At one time, _Hyla_ had more than 300 species from Europe, Asia, Africa, and across the Americas. Now, _Hyla_ has only 17 extant (living) species. They are from Europe, northern Africa and Asia. The earliest known fossil from a _Hyla_ frog is †_Hyla swanstoni_ from the Eocene.  The fossil was found in Saskatchewan, Canada, but it is not clear whether we would consider _swanstoni_ a _Hyla_ frog today.

Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti made the genus in 1768. He named it after Hylas from Greek mythology.  Hylas was a friend of Hercules. Even though the mythological person Hylas was male, the name _Hyla_ is given the feminine grammatical gender.

Some people say this word comes from the Greek word  (__, "forest" or "wood"), but it does not.

## Living species

|Binomial name|Common name|
| --- | --- |
|_H. annectans_|Jerdon's tree frog|
|_H. arborea_|European tree frog|
|_H. carthaginiensis_|Carthaginian tree frog|
|_H. chinensis_|Common Chinese tree frog|
|_H. felixarabica_|Arabian tree frog|
|_H. hallowellii_|Hallowell's tree frog|
|_H. intermedia_|Italian tree frog|
|_H. meridionalis_|Mediterranean tree frog|
|_H. molleri_|Moller's tree frog|
|_H. orientalis_|Oriental tree frog|
|_H. perrini_|Perrin's tree frog|
|_H. sanchiangensis_|San Chiang tree frog|
|_H. sarda_|Sardinian tree frog|
|_H. savignyi_|Middle East tree frog|
|_H. simplex_|Annam tree frog|
|_H. tsinlingensis_|Shensi tree frog|
|_H. zhaopingensis_|Zhaoping tree frog|

### Female choice based on male calling

In most _Hyla_ frogs, the male frogs sing, and then the female frogs choose which male to mate with based on their songs. But females from different species like different things about male frogs' voices. Female _H. versicolor_, for example, choose males whose calls last longer.  Female _H. arborea_ choose males who show up to sing in the same place for many nights.

### Male-male contests

In some _Hyla_ frogs, the male frogs fight and compete. Male _H. versicolor_ frogs show up where the females like to go. This behavior, called lekking, is common in many species of _Hyla_. In order to sing clearly, the males need to be a certain distance apart from each other. When one male gets too close to another male's singing place, the two males may fight or do something else that is like fighting. Male _H. versicolor_ sometimes show off to each other before they fight, so they can see whether they are likely to win first.

### Indirect selection

Indirect selection is when one partner chooses a mate based on just one thing that is related to how fit and healthy the mate is all together. _H. arborea_ is a frog that is awake at night, and the females listen to the males sing and then choose one, so the frogs must be able to hear well. These frogs can also see well in low light. This ability to see may be related to how females choose males.  Scientists say female _H. arborea_ choose males with more brightly colored vocal sacs. They think colorful vocal sacs may show that the frog has enough carotenoids in the food it eats. This may mean the male frog is better at finding food than other frogs, and he might pass on some of this skill to his offspring.

## Other websites

- . 2007. Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 5.1 (10 October 2007). _Hyla_. Electronic Database accessible at https://web.archive.org/web/20071024033938/http://research.amnh.org/herpetology/amphibia/index.php. American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA. (Accessed: Apr 21, 2008).
- [web application]. 2008. Berkeley, California: _Hyla_. AmphibiaWeb, available at http://amphibiaweb.org/. (Accessed: Apr 21, 2008).
- taxon _Hyla_ at http://www.eol.org.