The Reproductive Biology and Larvae of the First Tadpole-Bearing Frog, Limnonectes larvaepartus

Most of the reproductive modes of frogs include an exotrophic tadpole, but a number of taxa have some form of endotrophic development that lacks a feeding tadpole stage. The dicroglossid frog genus Limnonectes ranges from China south into Indonesia. The breeding biologies of the approximately 60 described species display an unusual diversity that range from exotrophic tadpoles to endotrophic development in terrestrial nests. There have been mentions of oviductal production of typical, exotrophic tadpoles in an undescribed species of Limnonectes from Sulawesi, Indonesia. Here we examine newly collected specimens of this species, now described as L. larvaepartus and present the first substantial report on this unique breeding mode. Typical exotrophic tadpoles that are retained to an advanced developmental stage in the oviducts of a female frog are birthed into slow-flowing streams or small, non-flowing pools adjacent to the streams.

• Publication year

  2015

• Venue

  PLoS ONE

• Publication date

  2015-01-02

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0116154PMID 25555000PMCID 4282202
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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