Wijayarana

Wijayarana is a group of true frogs found in Southeast Asia. Their common name is Wijaya cascade frogs. Many are commonly known as "torrent frogs" after their favorite habitat - small rapid-flowing mountain and hill streams -, but this name is used for many similar-looking frogs regardless of whether they are closely related.[1][2][3]

Wijayarana
Javan torrent frog (W. masonii)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Ranidae
Genus: Wijayarana
Arifin, Chan, Smart, Hertwig, Smith, Iskandar, and Haas, 2021
Species

See text

Taxonomy

All species in this genus were previously classified in the genus Huia, which was found by a 2021 study to be paraphyletic; the type species Huia cavitympanum (the hole-in-the-head frog) was found to be related to the genus Meristogenys, whereas the remaining members of Huia were sister to this clade. Due to this, the new genus Wijayarana was described to accommodate all members of Huia aside from H. cavitympanum. The genus name is derived from wijaya, the Indonesian spelling of the Sanskrit word vijaya, meaning "victory", and references the former Srivijaya empire, whose territory closely resembles the distribution of the genus.[3]

Several species of Amolops and Odorrana are highly convergent with Wijayarana. O. absita for example is highly similar in habitus to the completely allopatric W. masonii.[4]

In another incidence of convergent evolution yielding adaptation to habitat, the tadpoles of Amolops, Wijayarana, Huia, Meristogenys as well as Rana sauteri have a raised and usually well-developed sucker on their belly. This is useful in keeping in place in rocky torrents, where these frogs grow up. But as Odorrana and Staurois from comparable habitat prove, this sucker is by no means a necessity and other means of adaptation to torrent habitat exist.[4]

Species

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

References
  • Cai, Hong-xia; Che, Jing, Pang, Jun-feng; Zhao, Er-mi & Zhang, Ya-ping (2007): Paraphyly of Chinese Amolops (Anura, Ranidae) and phylogenetic position of the rare Chinese frog, Amolops tormotus. Zootaxa 1531: 49–55. PDF abstract and first page text
  • Stuart, Bryan L. (2008): The phylogenetic problem of Huia (Amphibia: Ranidae). Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 46(1): 49–60. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2007.09.016 (HTMl abstract)
  1. "Wijayarana Arifin, Chan, Smart, Hertwig, Smith, Iskandar, and Haas, 2021". Amphibian Species of the World.
  2. Cai et al. (2007), Stuart (2008)
  3. Arifin, Umilaela; Chan, Kin Onn; Smart, Utpal; Hertwig, Stefan T; Smith, Eric N; Iskandar, Djoko T; Haas, Alexander (2021-01-12). "Revisiting the phylogenetic predicament of the genus Huia (Amphibia: Ranidae) using molecular data and tadpole morphology". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 193 (2): 673–699. doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa158. ISSN 0024-4082.
  4. Stuart (2008)
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