| Liuixalus | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Liuixalus romeri | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Order: | Anura |
| Family: | Rhacophoridae |
| Subfamily: | Rhacophorinae |
| Genus: | Liuixalus Li, Che, Bain, Zhao, and Zhang, 2008 |
| Type species | |
| Philautus romeri | |
| Synonyms | |
RomerusDubois, Ohler & Pyron, 2021 | |
Liuixalus is a small genus of rhacophorid frogs that are distributed in southern China (Hong Kong, Hainan, Guangxi, Guangdong). Some species now in Liuixalus were originally placed in Philautus . It is thought to be sister to the remaining lineages within Rhacophorinaeae. [2]
The genus was first erected as Liuixalus in 2008 based on molecular genetic evidence showing distinctness of Liuixalus romeri (then known as Chiromantis romeri) from the rest of Chiromantis. [3] The genus name Liuixalus commemorates Liu Chengzhao , a Chinese herpetologist. [1] In 2021, another phylogenetic study deemed the name Liuixalus as invalidly proposed due to a lack of a diagnosis for the genus in the original study, and thus redescribed the genus as Romerus, alongside morphological characteristics distinguishing it. The name Romerus commemorates British herpetologist John D. Romer. [2] However, in 2023, the name was changed back to Liuixalus on the basis of Ren, Jiang & Li, who refuted the requirement for a genus name to have morphological characteristics associated with it. [4]
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed two species of the genus as vulnerable ( Liuixalus ocellatus and L. hainanus ), one as endangered ( L. romeri ), and one as least-concern ( L. feii ), while Liuixalus shiwandashan is considered data deficient. [5]
There are six recognized species in the genus Liuixalus: [6]