Ranoidea (genus)

Ranoidea
Ranoidea aurea, the type species
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Pelodryadidae
Subfamily: Pelodryadinae
Genus: Ranoidea
(Tschudi, 1838)
Type species
Ranoidea jacksoniensis
Tschudi, 1838
Synonyms[1]
List
  • Polyphone Gistel, 1848
  • Ranhyla M'Coy, 1867
  • Chirodryas Keferstein, 1867)
  • Fanchonia Werner, 1893

Ranoidea is a genus of frogs in the family Pelodryadidae. They are found across the temperate areas of south-eastern and south-western Australia.

Taxonomy

Species in this genus were until recently placed in the then-paraphyletic genus Litoria; many of them had been placed in even larger Hyla before. In 2006, Frost and colleague synonymised Nyctimystes with Litoria to make a monophyletic Litoria within a monotypic Pelodryadinae.[2][3] Later, in 2016, Duellman and colleagues restored Nyctimystes and moved some of the remaining Litoria species to the resurrected genus Dryopsophus[1][4]. However, Frost in Amphibian Species of the World argued that Ranoidea the oldest available name for these species and replaced genus Dryopsophus with Ranoidea[1].

A recent phylogenomic analysis of family Pelodryadidae has proposed a major taxonomic revision, recognising 35 genera, including 12 for the species that were briefly treated as Ranoidea[5].

Description and ecology

Ranoidea are terrestrial and semi-aquatic frogs that primarily breed in ephemeral and permanent waterbodies, in grasslands, riverine billabongs and forests. Most species are capable of adapting to human disturbance of natural habitats, though the south-eastern species have been severely affected by chytridiomycosis. The common names of this group often reflect the male breeding calls, such as the green and golden bell frog, the motorbike frog and growling grass frog.

Species

The following species are recognised in the genus Ranoidea:[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Frost, Darrel R. (2026). "Ranoidea Tschudi, 1838". Amphibian Species of the World: An Online Reference. Version 6.2. American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 2026-04-04.
  2. ↑ Frost, Darrel R. "Nyctimystes Stejneger, 1916". Amphibian Species of the World, an Online Reference. Version 6.2. American Museum of Natural History, New York. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  3. ↑ Frost, Darrel R.; Grant, Taran; Faivovich, Julián; Bain, Raoul H.; Haas, Alexander; Haddad, Célio F.B.; De Sá, Rafael O.; Channing, Alan; Wilkinson, Mark; Donnellan, Stephen C.; Raxworthy, Christopher J.; Campbell, Jonathan A.; Blotto, Boris L.; Moler, Paul; Drewes, Robert C.; Nussbaum, Ronald A.; Lynch, John D.; Green, David M.; Wheeler, Ward C. (2006). "The Amphibian Tree of Life". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 297: 1. doi:10.1206/0003-0090(2006)297[0001:TATOL]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0003-0090.
  4. ↑ Duellman, William E.; Marion, Angela B. & Hedges, S. Blair (19 April 2016). "Phylogenetics, classification, and biogeography of the treefrogs (Amphibia: Anura: Arboranae)". Zootaxa. 4104 (1): 1–109. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4104.1.1. PMID 27394762.
  5. ↑ Donnellan, Stephen; Mahony, Michael; Esquerre, Damien; Brennan, Ian; Price, Luke; Lemmon, Alan; Lemmon, Emily; Günther, Rainer; Monis, Paul; Bertozzi, Terry; Keogh, Scott; Shea, Glenn; Richards, Stephen (2025). "Phylogenomics informs a generic revision of the Australo-Papuan treefrogs (Anura: Pelodryadidae)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 204. doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaf015.