Geocrinia Blake 1973

Webster, Grant N. & Bool, Ian, 2022, A new genus for four myobatrachid frogs from the South Western Australian Ecoregion, Zootaxa 5154 (2), pp. 127-151 : 143

Geocrinia Blake 1973

Geocrinia Blake, 1973 . Type species: Pterophrynus laevis Günther, 1864 , by original designation.

Hesperocrinia Wells and Wellington, 1985 . Type species: Crinia leai Fletcher, 1898 , by original designation. Synonymy by acclamation.

Definition. Terrestrial/aquatic life history, aquatic exotrophic larvae with keratinised feeding mouthparts, larvae> 20 mm in maximum length, adults <31 mm in maximum length, fourth toe length> 7mm ( G. leai / G. victoriana ) and> 6mm ( G. laevis ), testes mass> 0.001 g, egg compliment>50; biphasic call, primarily autumn breeding.

Content. Three species: Geocinia laevis (Günther) , leai (Fletcher) , and victoriana (Boulenger) .

Distribution. Occurring in southern Australia (south-eastern and south-western).

Etymology. The generic name Geocrinia is derived from Ancient Greek, a combination of the prefix γεω- (geô-) “earth” and verb κρῑνω (krînô) “to separate”. While no etymology was provided by Blake, it presumably means “earth Crinia ”, referring to the terrestrial egg deposition and larval development of the contained species relative to the aquatic life history of the morphologically similar Crinia .