Amolops

Amolops (commonly known as cascade frogs or sucker frogs) is a genus of true frogs (family Ranidae) native mainly to eastern and south-eastern Asia. These frogs are closely related to such genera as Huia, Meristogenys, Odorrana, Pelohylax and Rana, but still form a distinct lineage among the core radiation of true frogs.[1] They are commonly known as "torrent frogs" after their favorite habitat - small rapid-flowing mountain and hill streams - but this name is used for many similar-looking frogs regardless of whether they are loosely related.

"Cascade frog" redirects here. It is not to be confused with Cascades frog.

Cascade frogs
Amolops panhai
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Amphibia
Order:	Anura
Family:	Ranidae
Genus:	Amolops Cope, 1865
Species
Many, see text

Several species are highly convergent with other Ranidae "torrent frogs". A. archotaphus and its relatives for example very much resemble Odorrana livida. In another incidence of convergent evolution yielding adaptation to habitat, the tadpoles of Amolops, Huia, Meristogenys as well as Rana sauteri have a raised and usually well-developed sucker on their belly. This is useful in keeping in place in rocky torrents, where these frogs grow up. But as Odorrana and Staurois from comparable habitat prove, this sucker is by no means a necessity and other means of adaptation to torrent habitat exist.[2]

Species

The delimitation of this genus has proven complicated, with many species believed to belong elsewhere. Due to the degree of convergent evolution, DNA sequence studies are very helpful in assigning species to the genera, though the possibility of past hybridization cannot be discounted in Ranidae.[1]

New species are described on a regular basis. At least one undescribed species is known to exist, a very distinct form from Phetchaburi in Thailand that is possibly closer to A. marmoratus than to most others.[3]

Amolops afghanus (Günther, 1858) Amolops akhaorum Stuart, Bain, Phimmachak, and Spence, 2010 Amolops albispinus Sung, Hu, Wang, Liu, and Wang, 2016 Amolops aniqiaoensis Dong, Rao, and Lü, 2005 Amolops archotaphus (Inger and Chan-ard, 1997) Amolops assamensis Sengupta et al., 2008 Amolops australis Chan, Abraham, Grismer, and Grismer, 2018 Amolops bellulus Liu, Yang, Ferraris, and Matsui, 2000 Amolops caelumnoctis Rao and Wilkinson, 2007 Amolops chakrataensis Ray, 1992 Amolops chayuensis Sun, Luo, Sun, and Zhang, 2013 Amolops chunganensis (Pope, 1929) Amolops compotrix (Bain, Stuart, and Orlov, 2006) Amolops cremnobatus Inger and Kottelat, 1998 Amolops cucae (Bain, Stuart, and Orlov, 2006) Amolops daiyunensis (Liu & Hu, 1975) Amolops daorum (Bain, Lathrop, Murphy, Orlov, and Ho, 2003) Amolops formosus (Günther, 1876) Amolops gerbillus (Annandale, 1912) Amolops gerutu Chan, Abraham, Grismer, and Grismer, 2018 Amolops granulosus (Liu and Hu, 1961) Amolops hainanensis (Boulenger, 1900) Amolops himalayanus (Boulenger, 1888) Amolops hongkongensis (Pope and Romer, 1951) – Hong Kong Cascade Frog Amolops indoburmanensis Dever, Fuiten, Konu, and Wilkinson, 2012 Amolops iriodes (Bain and Nguyen, 2004) Amolops jaunsari Ray, 1992 Amolops jinjiangensis Su, Yang, and Li, 1986 Amolops kaulbacki (Smith, 1940) Amolops kohimaensis Biju, Mahony, and Kamei, 2010

Amolops larutensis (Boulenger, 1899) Amolops lifanensis (Liu, 1945) Amolops loloensis (Liu, 1950) Amolops longimanus (Andersson, 1939) Amolops mantzorum (David, 1872) Amolops marmoratus (Blyth, 1855) Amolops medogensis Li and Rao, 2005 Amolops mengdingensis Yu, Wu, and Yang, 2019 Amolops mengyangensis Wu and Tian, 1995 Amolops minutus Orlov and Ho, 2007 Amolops monticola (Anderson, 1871) Amolops nidorbellus Biju, Mahony, and Kamei, 2010 Amolops nyingchiensis Jiang, Wang, Xie, Jiang, and Che, 2016 Amolops ottorum Pham, Sung, Pham, Le, Ziegler, and Nguyen, 2019 Amolops pallasitatus Qi, Zhou, Lyu, Lu, and Li, 2019 Amolops panhai Matsui & Nabhitabhata, 2006 Amolops ricketti (Boulenger, 1899) Amolops shuichengicus Lyu and Wang, 2019 Amolops sinensis Lyu, Wang, and Wang, 2019 Amolops spinapectoralis Inger, Orlov, and Darevsky, 1999 Amolops splendissimus Orlov and Ho, 2007 Amolops torrentis (Smith, 1923) Amolops tuberodepressus Liu and Yang, 2000 Amolops viridimaculatus (Jiang, 1983) Amolops vitreus (Bain, Stuart, and Orlov, 2006) Amolops wenshanensis Yuan, Jin, Li, Stuart, and Wu, 2018 Amolops wuyiensis (Liu and Hu, 1975) Amolops xinduqiao Fei, Ye, Wang, and Jiang, 2017 Amolops yatseni Lyu, Wang, and Wang, 2019 Amolops yunkaiensis Lyu, Wang, Liu, Zeng, and Wang, 2018

Footnotes

1. Cai et al. (2007), Stuart (2008)
2. Stuart (2008)
3. Cai et al. (2007)

References

• Cai, Hong-xia; Che, Jing, Pang, Jun-feng; Zhao, Er-mi & Zhang, Ya-ping (2007): Paraphyly of Chinese Amolops (Anura, Ranidae) and phylogenetic position of the rare Chinese frog, Amolops tormotus. Zootaxa 1531: 49–55. PDF abstract and first page text
• Stuart, Bryan L. (2008): The phylogenetic problem of Huia (Amphibia: Ranidae). Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 46(1): 49–60. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2007.09.016 (HTMl abstract)