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Hoplobatrachus rugulosus

Chinese edible frog
Hoplobatrachus rugulosus 2.jpg
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Dicroglossidae
Genus: Hoplobatrachus
Species: H. rugulosus
Binomial name
Hoplobatrachus rugulosus
(Wiegmann, 1834)
Synonyms

Rana tigrina ssp. pantherina Steindachner, 1867


Rana tigrina ssp. pantherina Steindachner, 1867

The Chinese edible frog, East Asian bullfrog, or Taiwanese frog (Hoplobatrachus rugulosus) is a species of frog in the Dicroglossidae family. It is found in Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its natural habitats are freshwater marshes, intermittent freshwater marshes, arable land, pasture land, rural gardens, urban areas, ponds, aquaculture ponds, open excavations, irrigated land, seasonally flooded agricultural land, and canals and ditches. They breed in spring–early summer.

The domesticated Thai variety and wild Chinese populations of H. rugulosus belong to two separate genetic lineages respectively. Yu et al. (2015) suggests that H. rugulosus may in fact be a cryptic species complex.

H. rugulosus is a large, robust frog, up to 12 cm (4.7 in) or more in snout-vent length. Females are larger than males. They are primarily insectivores.

The Chinese edible frog is commonly referred to as 田雞 ("field chicken") or 虎皮蛙 ("tiger-skinned frog") in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, and Chinese communities worldwide. In Filipino, they are called "palakang bukid," which means "frog of the field."

The frogs are commonly found in wet markets, seafood markets, and pet stores. In wet markets, they are usually sold per piece or per kilogram. The medium-sized frogs are sold as pets in pet stores, and the smaller variant is sold as live food for arowanas. They are widely farmed in Sichuan, China, Malaysia, and Thailand.


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