Cornufer, TSCHUDI, 1838

Brown, Rafe M., Siler, Cameron D., Richards, Stephen J., Diesmos, Arvin C. & Cannatella, David C., 2015, Multilocus phylogeny and a new classification for Southeast Asian and Melanesian forest frogs (family Ceratobatrachidae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society (Zool. J. Linn. Soc.) 174 (1), pp. 130-168 : 147-148

GENUS CORNUFER TSCHUDI, 1838

Type species

Halophila vitiensis Girard, 1853 by subsequent designation, following Opinion 1104 of the Commission ( Anonymous, 1978).

Diagnosis

Members of the genus Cornufer can be distinguished from species of the genus Alcalus by the presence of (1) median subgular vocal sacs (vs. absence); (2) absence of nuptial pads (vs. presence); (3) presence of supernumerary tubercles on hands (vs. absence); (4) presence of metatarsal tubercles beneath feet (vs. absence); and (4) absence or presence but highly reduced of interdigital webbing (vs. presence in species of Alcalus and members of Cornufer , subgenera Discodeles and Potamorana ).

Although species of Cornufer , subgenera Cornufer , Potamorana , Ceratobatrachus , Discodeles , Palmatorappia , and Batrachylodes are phenotypically diagnosable from species of the genera Alcalus and Platymantis (see diagnoses of those clades), species of Cornufer (subgenus Aenigmanura ) and former members of Solomon−Bismarck−Admiralty, Palau, Papuan, and eastern Indonesian ‘ Platymantis ’ ( Table 3; see species not assigned to subgenus) cannot be readily distinguished from species of the genus Platymantis on the basis of any one morphological character. We are unaware of any morphological synapomorphies for this clade, although it is strongly supported ( Fig. 2, Clade E).

Phylogenetic definition

Cornufer (CCN) is a maximum crown-clade name referring to the crown clade ( Fig. 2, Clade E) originating with the most recent common ancestor of Co. vitiensis and all extant species that share a more recent common ancestor with Co. vitiensis than with Al. mariae or Pl. corrugatus .

Content

Species of the subgenera (clades) Potamorana , Cornufer , Ceratobatrachus , Palmatorappia , Discodeles , Batrachylodes , Aenigmanura , and species of the Pacific (non-Philippine) clade, genus Cornufer , formerly referred to ‘ Platymantis ’ and not assigned to subgenus or subclade within Cornufer ( Fig. 2; Table 3).

Comment

Upon discovering that the overlooked type of Cornufer ( Cornufer unicolor Tschudi, 1838 ) was in fact a species of the Neotropical taxon Eleutherodactylus, Zweifel (1966) petitioned the Commission to suppress the names Cornufer and its type species Cornufer unicolor Zweifel, 1967 , to avoid synonymy of Eleutherodactylus within Cornufer . His argument was that this discovery would require the assignment of the> 200 species of Eleutherodactylus to Cornufer . Suppression of Cornufer would mean that the next available name for that group of ranoids would, at the time, have been Platymantis Günther, 1858 .

Darlington et al. (1967) countered that Cornufer should not be suppressed and that both names, Cornufer and Platymantis , should be retained as available because Cornufer had been widely used for some ranoid species. Additionally, the non-overlapping geographical distributions of Cornufer (east of Wallace’s Line) and Platymantis (west of Wallace’s Line) strengthened the argument that both genera should be retained as valid ( Darlington et al., 1967).

Prior to Zweifel (1966, 1967), Cornufer and Platymantis were commonly used ( Boulenger, 1918b; Taylor, 1920; Noble, 1931; Gorham, 1965; but see Inger, 1954). Although Zweifel (1967: 117) stated that ‘the name Cornufer is unavailable’ (and he was largely followed by working taxonomists), the Commission had not yet ruled on his request ( Zweifel, 1966) to suppress this name. A decade later, the Committee ruled against his proposal ( Anonymous, 1978) and eventually held that Halophila vitiensis Girard, 1853 , be designated as the type species of Cornufer and that this genus should be considered a junior subjective synonym of Platymantis , which ‘...is to be given precedence over Cornufer Tschudi, 1838 , by any zoologist who considers the type-species of those nominal genera to belong to the same taxonomic genus ( Anonymous, 1978; italics added).’ The Committee also suppressed all previous designations of the type species of Cornufer . Importantly, Cornufer was not suppressed; both names remain available and may be used either as genera or subgenera.

Given our choice not to place these two type species ( Co. vitiensis and Pl. pliciferus , the latter currently a synonym of Pl. corrugatus ) in the same genus, and that the name Cornufer Tschudi, 1838 , remains available ( Anonymous, 1978), we recognize both Platymantis (west of Wallace’s Line, i.e. Philippine species, excluding Al. mariae ) and Cornufer (all species east of Wallace’s Line, i.e. taxa from eastern Indonesia, New Guinea, Palau, the Solomon Islands, the Bismarck−Admiralty archipelagos, and Fiji). These names correspond to our newly defined clades ( Fig. 2, Clades M and E, respectively).

Because relationships amongst some species of the genus Cornufer have low support ( Fig. 2), we have used the type species of subgenera as specifiers to ensure that the content of Cornufer will remain stable.

Etymology

Although Tschudi (1838) provided no etymology for Cornufer , we assume that the name is derived from the Latin ‘cornu’ meaning horn, and the Latin verb ‘ferre’ (present infinitive), meaning to carry or bear, in reference to the presence of supraocular dermal tubercles in Co. vitiensis (the type species). Suggested common names: Fijian ground frog ( Cornufer vitianus ), Fijian tree frog ( Co. vitiensis ).