''Crinia'' is a genus of

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 ...

, native to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, and part of the family

Myobatrachidae Myobatrachidae, commonly known as Australian ground frogs or Australian water frogs, is a family of frogs found in Australia and New Guinea. Members of this family vary greatly in size, from species less than long, to the second-largest frog in ...

. 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 physically indistinguishable, and can only be identified 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 Johann Jakob von Tschudi (25 July 1818 – 8 October 1889) was a Switzerland, Swiss naturalist, explorer, and diplomat. He is known for his travels in South America, his scientific contributions to zoology and anthropology, and his diplomatic se ...

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 A mating call is the auditory signal used by animals to attract mates. It can occur in males or females, but literature is abundantly favored toward researching mating calls in females. In addition, mating calls are often the subject of mate choi ...

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.

Species

The genus ''Crinia'' contains 17 species:

References

Amphibian Species of the World - Crinia Tschudi, 1838Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage
* *Tschudi, Johann J. von (1838). Classification der Batrachier, mit Berücksichtigung der fossilen Tiere dieser Abteilung der Reptilien. Neuchâtel : Erück Petitpierre pp. 102. {{Taxonbar, from=Q2600380 Myobatrachidae Amphibians of Australia Amphibian genera Taxa named by Johann Jakob von Tschudi