The Arthroleptidae are a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...

s found in

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

. This group includes African treefrogs in the genus ''

Leptopelis ''Leptopelis'' is a genus of frogs in the family Arthroleptidae. They are found throughout Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Afric ...

'' along with the terrestrial breeding squeakers ''

Arthroleptis ''Arthroleptis'' is a genus of frogs in the family Arthroleptidae found in tropical sub-Saharan Africa. Their common names include screeching frogs, sometimes simply squeakers. Description These species are terrestrial breeding, with direct deve ...

'', and several genera restricted to the Guinean forests of central and west Africa, such as the

hairy frog The hairy frog (''Trichobatrachus robustus''), also known as the horror frog or Wolverine frog, is a Central African species of frog in the family Arthroleptidae. It is typically considered monotypic within the genus ''Trichobatrachus'', but base ...

''(Trichobatrachus)''.

Taxonomy

This family is the phylogenetic sister group of reed frogs, the

Hyperoliidae The Hyperoliidae, or sedge frogs and bush frogs, are a large family of small to medium-sized, brightly colored frogs which contain more than 250 species in 19 genera. Seventeen genera are native to sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, the monotypic g ...

, which together form the lineage Laurentobatrachia, a name that commemorates work on African frogs by the Argentine herpetologist

Raymond Laurent Raymond Ferdinand Louis-Philippe Laurent (16 May 1917 – 3 February 2005) was a Belgian herpetologist, who specialized in African and South American amphibians and reptiles. He published more than 200 scientific articles and book chapters. Severa ...

. This group is further nested within the Afrobatrachia, an ancient African endemic lineage that includes the

Brevicipitidae Brevicipitidae or rain frogs is a small Family (biology), family of frogs found in eastern and southern Africa. As of 2025 contains 38 species in 5 genera. eb application 2013. Berkeley, CaliforniaBrevicipitidae AmphibiaWeb, available at http ...

and

Hemisotidae The shovelnose frogs are the species of frogs in the genus, ''Hemisus'', the monotypic, only genus in the Family (biology), family Hemisotidae. They are found in tropical and subtropical sub-Saharan Africa. The shovelnose frogs are moderate-sized ...

. The Arthroleptidae are separated, based on phylogenetic analyses, into three deeply divergent and dissimilar subfamilies: Arthroleptinae, Astylosterninae, and Leptopelinae. Some consider these to be separate families, while others do not recognize any subfamilies, in particular due to uncertainty in the phylogenetic placement of ''Leptopelis'' and ''Scotobleps''. The three subfamilies consist of these genera:

References

" 'Horror frog' breaks own bones to produce claws." NewScientist.com, 2008

Further information

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q55455 Afrobatrachia Amphibian families Taxa named by St. George Jackson Mivart Fauna of the Afrotropical realm