Pelodryadidae Günther, 1859

Duellman, William E., Marion, Angela B. & Hedges, Blair, 2016, Phylogenetics, classification, and biogeography of the treefrogs (Amphibia: Anura: Arboranae), Zootaxa 4104 (1), pp. 1-109 : 36

Family Pelodryadidae Günther, 1859

Pelodryadidae Günther, “1858 ” 1859:345, Type genus: Pelodryas Günther, 1859 (= Litoria Tschudi, 1838 ), by original designation.

Definition. Arciferal pectoral girdle, eight procoelous presacral vertebrae, astragalus and calcaneum not fused, intercalary cartilages between terminal and penultimate phalanges, claw-shaped terminal phalanges, SVL from 18 mm in female Litoria microbelos ( Anstis 2013) to 135 mm in Nyctimystes infrafrenatus ; free-living aquatic tadpoles with LTRF of no more than 2/3. Chromosome complement 2n = 26 (2n = 24 in Nyctimystes infrafrenatus ).

Content. Two subfamilies, three genera, and 208 species.

Distribution. Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Bismark Archipelago, Vanuatu, and Seram Island and Moluccas Islands in Indonesia. Introduced into New Caledonia and New Zealand.

Etymology. The familial name is taken from the generic name Pelodryas , which is derived from the Greek pelo meaning clay or mud and the Greek dryos meaning tree; the implied meaning is unclear.

Remarks. The phylogenetic relationships of pelodryadid frogs has been a major problem. As stated by Frost et al. (2006:204–205), “The extensive paraphyly of ‘ Litoria ’ with respect to Cyclorana and ‘ Nyctimystes ’ remains the elephant in the room for Australian herpetology, and for reasons that escape us this spectacular problem has largely been ignored until recently.” As a result of their parsimony analysis that included three species of Nyctimystes and eight of Litoria (0.5% of known pelodryadids) Frost et al. (2006) considered Nyctimystes to be a junior synonym of Litoria , because the generic recognition of Nyctimystes made Litoria paraphyletic. In our analysis, Phyllomedusidae is the sister taxon of Pelodryadidae , and these two families form the sister group to Hylidae ( Fig. 2 ). The results of a maximum likelihood analysis of molecular data from 109 species (52% of known species) reveal three major clades of pelodryadids ( Fig. 2 ). Within Pelodryadidae two major clades of Litoria , as currently recognized, make Litoria paraphyletic with Nyctimystes intervening. Thus, we resurrect Dryopsophus for one of the clades of “ Litoria .” Furthermore, we recognize the subfamily Pelodryadinae to include Dryopsophus and Nyctimystes , while leaving Litoria as the single genus in Pelobiinae. This classification necessitates rearrangement of the generic synonyms of Litoria given by Frost (2015).

Figures

FIGURE 2. Phylogenetic tree of the families, subfamilies, and genera of arboranan frogs, distilled from the maximum likelihood phylogeny (Fig. 4). Names in red are new and those in blue are resurrected. The tree is rooted with Ceuthomantis smaragdinus, Dendrobates auratus, Haddadus binotatus, and Rhinoderma darwinii (not shown). Bootstrap support values are indicated at nodes.