Broad-mouth frogs of Pakistan: Family Ranidae   Family: RANIDAE     The Ranidae family or True Frogs consists of typical frogs with long legs, narrow waists, smooth skin, free fingers, and toes joined by webs. Most have dorsolateral ridges, which are raised longitudinal folds of glandular tissue. Vocal pouches on males are situated either at the sides or underneath of the throat. Breeding males have swollen forearms and enlarged thumbs. This family can be found in all continents except Antarctica. Ranid frogs of the subcontinent and Southeast Asia are a heterogeneous assemblage (Boulenger, 1920; Afzal et al., 1988). Several workers have tried to resolve taxonomic problems surrounding this genus. To avoid controversy, Boulenger (1890) placed ranids of the subcontinent in genus Rana. Later in 1920 he placed 55 ranid species from the subcontinent and southeast Asia in subgenus Rana of genus Rana. However, all subsequent workers (< biblio >) have accepted his 1890 apparent trouble settling idea. However, divisions within genus Rana proposed by Dumeril and Bibron (1841), Fitzinger (1843), Peters (1863) and others has now been accepted (Frost, 1985; Dubois, 1975, 1984, 1986, 1992; Dutta, 1997) There are 10 species of Ranidae frogs in Pakistan. In the table below the recent generic allotment of ranid frogs of Pakistan, is given to update our knowledge of the taxonomy of Pakistani frogs.  Recent generic allocation of the frogs of Pakistan    Boulengerian (1890) concept Family RANIDAE Genus Rana   Species:   cyanophlyctis   tigerina   limnocharis syhadrensis       pleskei   vicina barmoachensis sternosignata hazarensis   brevicep Recent status Family RANIDAE Genus Euphlyctis   Species:   cyanophlyctis Genus Hoplobatrachus tigerinus Genus Fejervarya limnocharis syhadrensis   Family MEGOPHRYIDAE Genus Scutiger nyingchiensis Genus Paa vicina   sternosignata hazarensis Genus Sphaeroteca breviceps Family Ranidae is by five genera and ten species of frogs in Pakistan: Common Skittering Frog (Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis cyanophlyctis) (New) Seistan Skittering Frog (Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis seistanica) (Info not available) Spiny Skittering Frog (Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis microspinulata) (Info not available) Indus Valley Bullfrog (Holobatrachus tigerinus) (New) Alpine Cricket Frog (Fejervarya limnocharis) (New) Southern Cricket Frog (Fejervarya syhadrensis) (Info not available) Hazara Torrent Frog (Paa hazarensis) (New) Karez Frog (Paa sternosignata) (New) Murree Hill’s Frog (Paa vicina) (New) Burrowing Frog or Malir Burrowing Frog (Sphaeroteca breviceps) (New)     Special Note: The information on this page was written by Dr. Muhammad Sharif Khan and taken from the AmphibiaWeb database, University of California at Berkeley.  I am extremely grateful to both the author Dr. Muhammad Sharif Khan and AmphibiaWeb for allowing me to use the information, under special permission. As such, all information on this page is the copyright property of Dr.  Muhammad Sharif Khan and AmphibiaWeb and should not be used without the written permission of the copyright holders.         References and Credits: The Tree of Life Web Project (ToL) (http://tolweb.org) Written by M. S. Khan ([email protected]), Herp Lab, Rabwah, Pakistan AmphibiaWeb database, University of California at Berkeley  ( http://elib.cs.berkeley.edu/aw/index.html ) Nausherwan Ahmed     ©1997-2005 Wildlife of Pakistan-All Rights Reserved. Updated May 8th, 2005