Crinia is a genus of frog, native to Australia, and part of the family Myobatrachidae. It consists of small frogs, which are distributed throughout most of Australia, excluding the central arid regions. Many of the species within this genus are non-distinguishable through physical characteristics, and can only be distinguished by their calls.
They have unwebbed toes and fingers, most of the species in these genus are polymorphic - meaning that several variations of colour and skin patterning exist in a single population and all species lay their eggs in small clumps in water.
The generic name Crinia likely derives from the Greek verb κρῑνω (krīnō) "to separate" as a reference to the frog's unwebbed digits, meaning "separated (toes)". Although Johann Jakob von Tschudi did not provide an etymology in 1838, he cited the frog's "free toes" (without webbing) as an important distinctive feature (most frogs have webbed feet).
During the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s a lot of taxonomic work was done on this genus, frogs that were originally thought to be common eastern froglets (Crinia signifera) were described as other species of Crinia by mating call analysis and hybridization experiments. Two species originally described as Crinia were then placed in their own genus, Assa and Paracrinia. One species of both Geocrinia and Taudactylus were split from Crinia and the genus Bryobatrachus was also described only to be recently placed back into Crinia. The moss froglet, (Crinia nimbus) is very different physically and in its tadpole development. Due to the obvious differences with other species in Crinia this species is likely to be placed again into a separate genus.
The genus Crinia contains 17 species:[1]
| Common name | Binomial name |
|---|---|
| Bilingual frog | Crinia bilingua |
| Desert froglet | Crinia deserticola |
| Kimberley froglet | Crinia fimbriata |
| Northern Flinders Ranges froglet | Crinia flindersensis |
| Quacking frog | Crinia georgiana |
| Glauert's froglet | Crinia glauerti |
| Sign-bearing froglet | Crinia insignifera |
| Moss froglet | Crinia nimbus |
| Eastern sign-bearing froglet | Crinia parinsignifera |
| False western froglet | Crinia pseudinsignifera |
| Remote froglet | Crinia remota |
| Streambank froglet | Crinia riparia |
| Common eastern froglet | Crinia signifera |
| Sloane's froglet | Crinia sloanei |
| Small western froglet | Crinia subinsignifera |
| Tasmanian froglet | Crinia tasmaniensis |
| Wallum froglet | Crinia tinnula |