Eastern spadefoot toads (Leptobrachium, also known as large-eyed litter frogs[1]) comprise a genus of the family
Megophryidae in the order
Anura, and are found in southern China, northeast India, southeast Asia, and islands of the
Sunda Shelf as well as the
Philippines.[2] They are characterized by a stocky body with slender, short hindlimbs.[3] In identifying species, iris colour is a valuable diagnostic morphological characteristic (see Leptobrachium bompu for an example of a blue-eyed species); the iris has uniform colour in some species, whereas in other species the upper half is coloured and the lower half is dark.[4]
Two
subgenera, Leptobrachium and Vibrissaphora, are recognized; the latter was originally described as a genus, with Vibrissaphora boringii as the
type species.[2] These subgenera (or genera) were originally separated by presence (in Vibrissaphora, hence the common name moustache or spiny toad) and absence of nuptial spines on the upper labium in males during the breeding season (in Leptobrachium). Later genetic analyses have not supported this original separation, but still indicate the presence of two distinct
clades. These clades can be referred to as subgenera Leptobrachium and Vibrissaphora, but their contents differ from the earlier, purely morphological definition (Vibrissaphora contains all spiny species, but also non-spiny ones). Subgenus Vibrissaphora thus defined is distributed in southern China and Indochina, and subgenus Leptobrachium in the
Malay Peninsula and the
Malay Archipelago northwest of the
Wallace Line.[4] No morphological character that could uniquely separate the subgenera has yet been identified.[7]
Species
As of mid-2019, there were 36 recognized species:[2] and one proposed species
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abcdFrost, Darrel R. (2017).
"Leptobrachium Tschudi, 1838". Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
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abMatsui, M.; Hamidy, A.; Murphy, R. W.; Khonsue, W.; Yambun, P.; Shimada, T.; Ahmad, N.; Belabut, D. M.; Jiang, J. P. (2010). "Phylogenetic relationships of megophryid frogs of the genus Leptobrachium (Amphibia, Anura) as revealed by mtDNA gene sequences". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 56 (1): 259–272.
doi:
10.1016/j.ympev.2010.03.014.
PMID20302957.