Raorchestes

Raorchestes
Raorchestes signatus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Rhacophoridae
Subfamily: Rhacophorinae
Genus: Raorchestes
Biju, Shouche, Dubois, Dutta, and Bossuyt, 2010[1]
Type species
Ixalus glandulosus
Jerdon, 1854
Diversity
See text
Raorchestes flaviocularis in India
Raorchestes chalazodes from the Western Ghats.

Raorchestes is a genus of frogs in the subfamily Rhacophorinae[2] that are found in mountainous regions of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and southern China.[3] A recent study places Raorchestes as a sister taxon of Pseudophilautus.[2][4] Before the description of the genus in 2010, species now in Raorchestes had been assigned to genera Ixalus (no longer recognized), Philautus, and Pseudophilautus.[2]

The genus is named in honour of C. R. Narayan Rao in recognition of his contribution to Indian batrachology.[3] The other root orchestes is based on an older genus name for frogs of the Philautus group, Orchestes Tschudi 1838.[5] Extensive exploration in the range of the genus in the Western Ghats of India suggests an under-estimation of the number of species in the genus.[6][7][8] A study of the diverse species of the genus show that the separate isolated massifs of the Western Ghats played a major role in the speciation and habitat specificity seen in the genus of bush frogs.[7]

  1. ^ Biju, S. D.; Yogesh Shouche; Alain Dubois; S. K. Dutta; Franky Bossuyt (2010). "A ground-dwelling rhacophorid frog from the highest mountain peak of the Western Ghats of India" (PDF). Current Science. 98 (8): 1119–1125.
  2. ^ a b c Frost, Darrel R. (2014). "Raorchestes Biju, Shouche, Dubois, Dutta, and Bossuyt, 2010". Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Alexander Pyron, R.; Wiens, John J. (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. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2011.06.012. PMID 21723399.
  5. ^ Tschudi, Johann Jakob von; Agassiz, Louis (1838). Classification der Batrachier : mit Berucksichtigung der fossilen Thiere dieser Abtheilung der Reptilien / von J. J. Tschudi. Neuch©Øtel. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.4883.
  6. ^ Vijayakumar, S. P.; Dinesh, K. P.; Prabhu, Mrugank V.; Shanker, Kartik (2014-12-10). "Lineage delimitation and description of nine new species of bush frogs (Anura: Raorchestes , Rhacophoridae) from the Western Ghats Escarpment". Zootaxa. 3893 (4): 451–488. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3893.4.1. ISSN 1175-5334. PMID 25544534.
  7. ^ a b Vijayakumar, S. P.; Menezes, Riya C.; Jayarajan, Aditi; Shanker, Kartik (2016-08-17). "Glaciations, gradients, and geography: multiple drivers of diversification of bush frogs in the Western Ghats Escarpment". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 283 (1836): 20161011. doi:10.1098/rspb.2016.1011. PMC 5013767. PMID 27534957.
  8. ^ Priti, H.; Roshmi, Rekha Sarma; Ramya, Badrinath; Sudhira, H. S.; Ravikanth, G.; Aravind, Neelavara Anantharam; Gururaja, Kotambylu Vasudeva (2016-03-02). "Integrative Taxonomic Approach for Describing a New Cryptic Species of Bush Frog (Raorchestes: Anura: Rhacophoridae) from the Western Ghats, India". PLOS ONE. 11 (3): e0149382. Bibcode:2016PLoSO..1149382P. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0149382. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 4774957. PMID 26934213.