Scientific name Duttaphrynus Higher classification True toad Order Frog | Family Bufonidae Phylum Chordata Rank Genus | |
Lower classifications Duttaphrynus melanostictus, Duttaphrynus himalayanus, Duttaphrynus kotagamai, Bufo beddomii, Duttaphrynus microtympanum | ||
Duttaphrynus, named after Dr. Sushil Kumar Dutta is a genus of true toads. It is endemic to southwestern and southern China (including Hainan), Taiwan, and throughout southern Asia from northern Pakistan and Nepal through India to Sri Lanka, Andaman Island, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and Bali.
Description
These toads are characterized by heads with prominent bony ridges, such as a canthal, a pre-orbital, a supraorbital, and a postorbital ridge, and a short orbito-tympanic ridge. The snout is short and blunt; the interorbital space is broader than the upper eyelid; the tympanum is very small, not half the diameter of eye, and generally indistinct. The first finger of these toads extends beyond the second; the toes are half webbed with single subarticular tubercles, two moderate metatarsal tubercles, and no tarsal fold. The tarsometatarsal articulation reaches the eye, or between the eye and the tip of the snout. The upper surface features are irregular and distinctly porous warts with prominent parotoids. These are elliptical and two, or two and a half, times as long as they are broad. The toads are brown above and yellow beneath, marbled with brown. Males have a subgular vocal sac and are typically three inches long.
This genus was previously assigned to Bufo melanostictus group. Frost et al. suggested that Duttaphrynus is only distantly related to other Asiatic bufonids and consequently moved these species in 2006 to a separate genus.
