Theloderma

Theloderma, the bug-eyed frogs, mossy frogs, or warty frogs, is a genus of frogs in the family Rhacophoridae, subfamily Rhacophorinae. They live in northeastern India and southern China, through Southeast Asia, to the Greater Sunda Islands; the highest species richness is in Indochina. Some species, especially T. corticale, can live in captivity, with humans.

They are small and medium-sized frogs with maximum snout–vent lengths that range from . Their skin can be smooth or it can have warts or bumps on it. Some of the species look very different from each other, but most have good camouflage: Their colors make them look like plants or bird droppings so that animals that want to eat them cannot see them.

Scientists do not know much about what these frogs do, but they eat small animals without bones, for example insects. Scientists have seen some of these species lay eggs in small pools of water in holes in trees, in bamboo, or in karst rocks. The female lays 4–20 eggs just above the water. After about one to two weeks they hatch into tadpoles that fall into the water. They become small frogs after a few months or a year.

Species and taxonomy

The sister taxon of Theloderma is Nyctixalus. Scientists have changed their minds about exactly which species should be in the genus Theloderma and which in Nyctixalus, especially with Theloderma moloch. Today both AmphibiaWeb and Amphibian Species of the World say the two genera are both good.

Amphibian Species of the World says there are 26 species in the genus Theloderma:

 Theloderma albopunctatum (Liu and Hu, 1962)
 Theloderma annae Nguyen, Pham, Nguyen, Ngo, and Ziegler, 2016
 Theloderma asperum (Boulenger, 1886)
 Theloderma auratum Poyarkov, Kropachev, Gogoleva, and Orlov, 2018
 Theloderma baibengense (Jiang, Fei, and Huang, 2009)
 Theloderma bicolor (Bourret, 1937)
 Theloderma corticale (Boulenger, 1903)
 Theloderma gordoni Taylor, 1962
 Theloderma horridum (Boulenger, 1903)
 Theloderma lacustrinum Sivongxay, Davankham, Phimmachak, Phoumixay, and Stuart, 2016
 Theloderma laeve (Smith, 1924)
 Theloderma lateriticum Bain, Nguyen, and Doan, 2009
 Theloderma leporosum Tschudi, 1838
 Theloderma licin McLeod and Norhayati, 2007
 Theloderma moloch (Annandale, 1912)
 Theloderma nagalandense Orlov, Dutta, Ghate, and Kent, 2006
 Theloderma nebulosum Rowley, Le, Hoang, Dau, and Cao, 2011
 Theloderma palliatum Rowley, Le, Hoang, Dau, and Cao, 2011
 Theloderma petilum (Stuart and Heatwole, 2004)
 Theloderma phrynoderma (Ahl, 1927)
 Theloderma pyaukkya Dever, 2017
 Theloderma rhododiscus (Liu and Hu, 1962)
 Theloderma ryabovi Orlov, Dutta, Ghate, and Kent, 2006
 Theloderma stellatum Taylor, 1962
 Theloderma truongsonense (Orlov and Ho, 2005)
 Theloderma vietnamense Poyarkov, Orlov, Moiseeva, Pawangkhanant, Ruangsuwan, Vassilieva, Galoyan, Nguyen, and Gogoleva, 2015
 Theloderma khoii Ninh, Nguyen, Nguyen, Hoang, Siliyavong, Nguyen, Le, Le & Ziegler, 2022

References

Category:Frogs of Asia