Sphaerotheca (frog)

Sphaerotheca is a genus of frogs in the family Dicroglossidae.^[1][2] They can be found in South Asia.^[1][3] Molecular data suggest that they are closely related to Fejervarya.^[1] Ecologically, they are burrowing frogs.^[3]

Sphaerotheca
Sphaerotheca breviceps
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Amphibia
Order:	Anura
Family:	Dicroglossidae
Subfamily:	Dicroglossinae
Genus:	Sphaerotheca Günther, 1859
Type species
Sphaerotheca strigata Günther, 1859 "1858"
Species
9, see text.

Species

There are currently 9 recognized species in Sphaerotheca:^[1]

• Sphaerotheca bengaluru Deepak, Dinesh, Ohler, Shanker, Channakeshavamurthy & Ashadevi, 2020^[4]
• Sphaerotheca breviceps (Schneider, 1799)
• Sphaerotheca dobsoni (Boulenger, 1882)
• Sphaerotheca leucorhynchus (Rao, 1937)
• Sphaerotheca maskeyi (Schleich and Anders, 1998)
• Sphaerotheca pluvialis (Jerdon, 1853)
• Sphaerotheca rolandae (Dubois, 1983)
• Sphaerotheca strachani (Murray, 1884)
• Sphaerotheca varshaabhu Deepak, Dinesh, Chetan Nag, Ohler, Shanker, Souza, Prasad, and Ashadevi, 2024^[3][5]

The status of Sphaerotheca swani is disputed, with Deepak and colleagues (2024) arguing for its recognition^[3] (as is done by AmphibiaWeb^[2]), whereas it is considered a synonym of Sphaerotheca breviceps by the Amphibian Species of the World.^[1]