''Rhacophorus'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

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 in the shrub-frog

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 ...

Rhacophoridae, which, with the related

Hylidae Hylidae is a wide-ranging family of frogs commonly referred to as " tree frogs and their allies". However, the hylids include a diversity of frog species, many of which do not live in trees, but are terrestrial or semiaquatic. Taxonomy and ...

, is one of the two genera of true

tree frog A tree frog (or treefrog) is any species of frog that spends a major portion of its lifespan in trees, known as an arboreal state. Several lineages of frogs among the Neobatrachia suborder have given rise to treefrogs, although they are not clos ...

s. They are found in China, India, Japan, and throughout Southeast Asia, including the island of

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

. Over 40 species are currently recognised. These frogs have long toes with strong webbing between them, enabling the animals to jump from tree to tree, using the webbing to control a gliding descent, a form of

arboreal locomotion Arboreal locomotion is the animal locomotion, locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolution, evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally (scansorial), but others are e ...

known as ''parachuting''. This behavioral adaptation is the source of their common name, " flying frogs". The present genus is closely related to ''

Polypedates ''Polypedates'' is a genus of frogs in the family (biology), family Rhacophoridae, the shrub frogs and Paleotropic tree frogs. They belong to subfamily Rhacophorinae. Members of this genus are collectively known as whipping frogs. They occur in ...

'', which (formerly) was included in ''Rhacophorus''. Even today, it is not fully agreed upon which of these genera '' "P." feae'' and the Chinese flying frog (''"R." dennysi'') properly belong to; furthermore, a supposedly new species, ''"P. pingbianensis"'', has been found to be the same as '' R. duboisi''.

Reproduction

These frogs lay their eggs in aerial foam nests; upon hatching,

tadpole A tadpole or polliwog (also spelled pollywog) is the Larva, larval stage in the biological life cycle of an amphibian. Most tadpoles are fully Aquatic animal, aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial animal, ...

s drop to the water under the nest and complete their development there. Some species like Rhacophorus kio will wrap this and cover this foam nest with leaves.

Species

These species are recognised in the genus ''Rhacophorus'': * '' Rhacophorus annamensis'' Smith, 1924 – Annam flying frog * '' Rhacophorus baluensis'' Inger, 1954 * '' Rhacophorus barisani'' Harvey, Pemberton, and Smith, 2002 * '' Rhacophorus bengkuluensis'' Streicher, Hamidy, Harvey, Anders, Shaney, Kurniawan, and Smith, 2014 * '' Rhacophorus bifasciatus'' Van Kampen, 1923 * '' Rhacophorus bipunctatus'' Ahl, 1927 (including ''R. htunwini'') * '' Rhacophorus borneensis'' Matsui, Shimada, and Sudin, 2013 * '' Rhacophorus calcadensis'' Ahl, 1927 – Kalakad gliding frog * '' Rhacophorus calcaneus'' Smith, 1924 * '' Rhacophorus catamitus'' Harvey, Pemberton, and Smith, 2002 * '' Rhacophorus edentulus'' Müller, 1894 * '' Rhacophorus exechopygus'' Inger, Orlov, and Darevsky, 1999 * '' Rhacophorus georgii'' Roux, 1904 * '' Rhacophorus helenae'' Rowley, Tran, Hoang & Le, 2012 – Helen's tree frog * '' Rhacophorus hoabinhensis'' Nguyen, Pham, Nguyen, Ninh, and Ziegler, 2017 * '' Rhacophorus hoanglienensis'' Orlov, Lathrop, Murphy, and Ho, 2001 * '' Rhacophorus indonesiensis'' Hamidy & Kurniati, 2015 * '' Rhacophorus kio'' Ohler & Delorme, 2005 – black-webbed treefrog * '' Rhacophorus laoshan'' Mo, Jiang, Xie, and Ohler, 2008 * '' Rhacophorus larissae'' Ostroshabov, Orlov, and Nguyen, 2013 * '' Rhacophorus lateralis'' Boulenger, 1883 * '' Rhacophorus malabaricus'' Jerdon, 1870 – Malabar gliding frog * '' Rhacophorus margaritifer'' (Schlegel, 1837) * '' Rhacophorus marmoridorsum'' Orlov, 2008 * '' Rhacophorus modestus'' Boulenger, 1920 * '' Rhacophorus monticola'' Boulenger, 1896 * '' Rhacophorus napoensis'' Li, Liu, Yu, and Sun, 2022 * '' Rhacophorus nigropalmatus'' Boulenger, 1895 – Wallace's flying frog * '' Rhacophorus norhayatii'' Chan and Grismer, 2010 * '' Rhacophorus orlovi'' Ziegler and Köhler, 2001 * '' Rhacophorus pardalis'' Günther, 1858 – harlequin tree frog * '' Rhacophorus poecilonotus'' Boulenger, 1920 * '' Rhacophorus pseudomalabaricus'' Vasudevan and Dutta, 2000 * '' Rhacophorus reinwardtii'' (Schlegel, 1840) – black-webbed tree frog, green flying frog, Reinwardt's tree frog * '' Rhacophorus rhodopus'' Liu and Hu, 1960 (including ''R. namdaphaensis'', often included in ''R. bipunctatus'') * '' Rhacophorus robertingeri'' Orlov, Poyarkov, Vassilieva, Ananjeva, Nguyen, Sang, and Geissler, 2012 * '' Rhacophorus spelaeus'' Orlov, Gnophanxay, Phimminith, and Phomphoumy, 2010 * '' Rhacophorus subansiriensis'' Mathew and Sen, 2009 * '' Rhacophorus trangdinhensis'' Kropachev, Evsyunin, Orlov, and Nguyen, 2022 * '' Rhacophorus translineatus'' Wu, 1977 * '' Rhacophorus tuberculatus'' (Anderson, 1871) * '' Rhacophorus turpes'' Smith, 1940 * '' Rhacophorus vanbanicus'' Kropachev, Orlov, Ninh, and Nguyen, 2019 * '' Rhacophorus verrucopus'' Huang, 1983 * '' Rhacophorus viridimaculatus'' Ostroshabov, Orlov, and Nguyen, 2013

Phylogeny

The following is a partial phylogeny of ''Rhacophorus'' from Pyron & Wiens (2011). Only nine species are included. ''Rhacophorus'' is a

sister group In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

of ''

''.

References

External links

Amphibian and Reptiles of Peninsular Malaysia - Family Rhacophoridae
{{Taxonbar, from=Q943540 Amphibians of Asia Amphibian genera Taxa named by Heinrich Kuhl Taxa named by Johan Conrad van Hasselt