Fejervarya Explained

Fejervarya is a genus of frogs in the family Dicroglossidae found in Asia. 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.[1]

Systematics and taxonomy

The name of Fejervarya honors Hungarian zoologist .[2] It was first introduced as subgenus of Rana and later placed as subgenus of Limnonectes, and 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 some species to the genus Zakerana (renamed in 2021 as Minervarya). 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, Minervarya contains species from southern Asia (Sri Lanka and Indian subcontinent including Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh).[3]

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.[4] [5]

Species

The following 14 species are recognised in the genus Fejerverya:[6]

Phylogeny

The following phylogeny of Fejervarya is from Pyron & Wiens (2011).[7] 7 species are included. Fejervarya is a sister group of Minervarya, which had until recently been included in Fejervarya.[7]

Notes and References

  1. Malcolm S. Gordon . Knut Schmidt-Nielsen . Knut Schmidt-Nielsen . Hamilton M. Kelly . amp . 1961 . Osmotic regulation in the crab-eating frog (Rana cancrivora) . . 38 . 3 . 659–678 . 10.1242/jeb.38.3.659 .
  2. Bolkay. I. J.. 1915. Beiträge zur Osteologie einiger exotischer Raniden. Anatomischer Anzeiger. 48. 172-183. de.
  3. Web site: Zakerana Howlader, 2011 . Frost, Darrel R. . 2014 . Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.0 . American Museum of Natural History . 23 February 2015 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140203064838/http://research.amnh.org/vz/herpetology/amphibia/Amphibia/Anura/Dicroglossidae/Dicroglossinae/Zakerana. 2014-02-03 .
  4. Mohammed Mafizul Islam . Naoko Kurose . MdMukhlesur Rahman Khan . Toshitaka Nishizawa . Mitsuru Kuramoto . Mohammad Shafiqul Alam . Mahmudul Hasan . Nia Kurniawan . Midori Nishioka . Masayuki Sumida . 2008 . Genetic divergence and reproductive isolation in the genus Fejervarya (Amphibia: Anura) from Bangladesh inferred from morphological observations, crossing experiments, and molecular analyses . . 25 . 11 . 1084–1105 . 10.2108/zsj.25.1084 . 19267620. 398277 .
  5. Manabu Kotaki . Atsushi Kurabayashi . Masafumi Matsui . Wichase Khonsue . Tjong Hon Djong . Manuj Tandon . Masayuki Sumida . amp . 2008 . Genetic divergences and phylogenetic relationships among the Fejervarya limnocharis complex in Thailand and neighboring countries revealed by mitochondrial and nuclear genes . . 25 . 4 . 381–390 . 10.2108/zsj.25.381 . 18459820 . 2433/85313 . 16905312 . free .
  6. Web site: Fejervarya Bolkay, 1915 . Frost, Darrel R. . 2014 . Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.0 . American Museum of Natural History . 23 February 2015.
  7. R. Alexander Pyron . John J. Wiens . 2011 . A large-scale phylogeny of Amphibia including over 2800 species, and a revised classification of extant frogs, salamanders, and caecilians . Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . 61 . 2 . 543–583 . 10.1016/j.ympev.2011.06.012. 21723399 . free .

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