Fejervarya

Fejervarya
Crab-eating Frog (Fejervarya cancrivora), one of the "true" Fejervarya
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Amphibia
Order:	Anura
Family:	Dicroglossidae
Subfamily:	Dicroglossinae
Genus:	Fejervarya Bolkay, 1915
Type species
Rana limnocharis Gravenhorst, 1829
Diversity
16 species, but see text
Synonyms
Minervarya Dubois, Ohler & Biju, 2001

Fejervarya is one of the Asian genera of frogs in the Dicroglossidae family. First proposed in 1915 by István József Bolkay, a Hungarian naturalist, the genus did not see widespread adoption at first. As late as the 1990s it was generally included in Rana, but more recent studies have confirmed its distinctness.

These frogs are remarkable for being extremely euryhaline by amphibian standards. Species such as the crab-eating frog (F. cancrivora) can thrive in brackish water, and its tadpoles can even survive in pure seawater.

Systematics and taxonomy

File:RanaLimnocharisJavadi2.jpg

This specimen from the Javadi Hills of Tamil Nadu (India) resembles the Cricket Frog (F. limnocharis) of Indonesia, but its origin suggests that it does not belong to that species, and perhaps not even in Fejervarya sensu stricto.

Fejervarya was first introduced as subgenus of Rana and later placed as subgenus as Limnonectes. It was treated as an independent genus first in 1998. However, Fejervarya sensu lato was found to be paraphyletic with respect to Sphaerotheca. This issue was eventually resolved in 2011 by splitting off Zakerana from Fejervarya. Fejervarya, as now defined, is distributed from eastern India (Orissa) eastwards through Myanmar to southern China and Indochina to the islands of the Sunda Shelf as well as Japan. In contrast, Zakerana contains species from southern Asia (Sri Lanka and Indian subcontinent including Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh)

The widespread Cricket Frog (F. limnocharis) and some others have also been suspected to be cryptic species complexes since at least the 1970s, and indeed a few populations have been identified that almost certainly constitute undescribed species.

Vocalisation behaviour

• Fejervarya vocalisation stomach distended - front view.jpg

  1. Preparing to vocalise - front view

• Fejervarya vocalisation -front view.jpg

  2. Vocalising front view

• Fejervarya vocalisation stomach distended - side view.jpg

  3. Preparing to vocalise - side view

• Fejervarya vocalisation - side view.jpg

  4. Vocalising side view

Species

Fejerverya sensu stricto contains 16 described species, as well as some putative but undescribed species:

• Fejervarya andamanensis (Stoliczka, 1870)
• Fejervarya cancrivora (Gravenhorst, 1829)
• Fejervarya iskandari Veith, Kosuch, Ohler, and Dubois, 2001
• Fejervarya kawamurai Djong, Matsui, Kuramoto, Nishioka, and Sumida, 2011
• Fejervarya limnocharis (Gravenhorst, 1829)
• Fejervarya modesta (Rao, 1920)
• Fejervarya moodiei (Taylor, 1920)
• Fejervarya multistriata (Hallowell, 1861)
• Fejervarya nicobariensis (Stoliczka, 1870)
• Fejervarya orissaensis (Dutta, 1997)
• Fejervarya pulla (Stoliczka, 1870)
• Fejervarya sakishimensis Matsui, Toda, and Ota, 2008
• Fejervarya schlueteri (Werner, 1893)
• Fejervarya triora Stuart, Chuaynkern, Chan-ard, and Inger, 2006
• Fejervarya verruculosa (Roux, 1911)
• Fejervarya vittigera (Wiegmann, 1834)

The following species with unknown and/or lost holotypes are placed incertae sedis in Fejerverya:

• Fejervarya altilabris
• Fejervarya assimilis
• Fejervarya brama
• Fejervarya frithii

External links

• Media related to at Wikimedia Commons