Cophylinae
| Cophylinae | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Anodonthyla boulengerii | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Order: | Anura |
| Family: | Microhylidae |
| Subfamily: |
Cophylinae Cope, 1889 |
| Type genus | |
|
Cophyla Boettger, 1880 |
|
| Genera | |
|
8 genera; see article. |
|
8 genera; see article.
Cophylinae is a subfamily of microhylid frogs endemic to Madagascar. It has over 70 species in eight genera. Members of this subfamily range from minute (< 10 mm adult body size) to fairly large (> 100 mm adult body size), and they are highly ecologically diverse. DNA barcode research has revealed a significant taxonomic gap in this subfamily, and an estimated 70+ candidate species have been identified and await formal taxonomic treatment.
As of July 2017, the following genera are recognised:
Cophylines are characterized by a derived mode of larval development: whereas most microhylids have a specialized filter-feeding tadpole, cophylines have non-feeding tadpoles that develop either in tree holes, terrestrial foam nests, or terrestrial jelly nests. Most cophylines have very simple advertisement calls, consisting of single melodious notes that are repeated after regular intervals and for long periods of time, usually lasting several minutes. Correlated to the reproductive mode of the various cophyline lineages is their arboreal versus terrestrial or fossorial ecology, and apparently, multiple evolutionary shifts between arboreal and terrestrial habits have occurred in this subfamily.
There is little doubt that the Cophylinae originated on Madagascar, as they are restricted to the island. Their affinities with other subfamilies of the diverse Microhylidae have been a matter of some debate, and only recently has a tentative consensus emerged that they are most closely related to the Scaphiophryninae, another Madagascar-endemic subfamily. Thus, two subfamily units of Microhylidae are endemic to and probably originated on the island of Madagascar. What is also clear is that the third Madagascar-endemic subfamily, Dyscophinae, is not closely related to these two subfamilies, so microhylids colonised Madagascar at least twice. It is not however clear which subfamily is most closely related to Cophylinae+Scaphiophryninae, in part because the topology of deep nodes of the microhylid evolutionary tree is not satisfactorily resolved and remains unstable.
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Wikipedia