Nyctibatrachidae is a small family of frogs found in the Western Ghats of India and in Sri Lanka. Their common name is robust frogs. Recognition of Nyctibatrachidae as a family is fairly recent. These frogs were previously placed in the broadly defined family Ranidae, which was more recently divided into three subfamilies: Lankanectinae, Nyctibatrachinae, and Astrobatrachinae.
Genera The family contains three genera in their own subfamilies:
Subfamily Astrobatrachinae Astrobatrachus Vijayakumar et al., 2019 (Western Ghats of southwestern India – 1 species) Subfamily Lankanectinae Lankanectes Dubois and Ohler, 2001 (Sri Lanka – 2 species) Subfamily Nyctibatrachinae Nyctibatrachus Boulenger, 1882 (Western Ghats of southwestern India – 28 species)
Description Nyctibatrachus are robust-bodied frogs that range in size from small (snout–vent length <20 mm in Nyctibatrachus beddomii) to relatively large (up to 84 mm Nyctibatrachus karnatakaensis). They occur in near streams in hilly evergreen forests. Lankanectes is an aquatic species of slow-moving rivers in marshy areas.
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