Breviceps
Breviceps montanus
Breviceps, also called rain frogs, frog is a genus of the family of short- head frogs. Its distribution area covers Southern Africa. The name of rain frogs refers to the calls of males that advertise especially after rainfall for the females. This then leave their burrows under rocks, fallen trees or in the dunes in order to mate.
Description
The short head frogs of the genus Breviceps stand out for its rounded shape, often reminiscent in their coloring stones. Her limbs are very short, the hind legs are hardly suitable for jumping, unlike those of most other frogs. The frogs reach depending on a head-body length of about 2-6 centimeters. Individual toes and fingers are often only a few millimeters long. Fingers and toes are not broadened and have simple, bony phalanges. With the exception of Breviceps macrops no webbed feet are formed in the species of the genus on the fingers and toes.
The muzzle is short and flat, the head is barely separated from the body. The eyes are large and forward. The pupils are horizontal. The tongue is oval, entire and free lifted backwards. The palate is studded with papillae, teeth and palate rugae are not available. The eardrum is not or only indistinctly visible. The coracoids are strongly broadened at the medial end and, with the well-educated, straight Praecoracoiden an acute angle. The Omosternum missing, the sternum is very small and cartilaginous. The transverse processes of the fused with the coccyx sacral vertebra are very strongly broadened.
Occurrence
The genus occurs to semi-arid eastern and southern Africa in the arid. To the north extends their range from South Africa to Mozambique and Tanzania to Kenya, west to Namibia and Angola. The frogs inhabit the beaches, dunes and savannah of the coastal strip of the countries mentioned. However, they are also found in the grasslands of the inland countries such as Lesotho, Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Way of life
The species of the genus Breviceps spend the day mostly in caves or buildings in the soil of their habitat. In the cooler night they go looking for food. The main food source is insects, wingless termites in some regions.
Mating occurs mainly in the summer months in the southern hemisphere after heavy rains instead. The males may be due to their short hind legs common amongst frogs amplexus, the staple position during mating, do not run. Therefore, when pairing a sticky secretion is secreted, the males remain attached to the female with its help. The eggs are placed by the females in an underground construction and fertilized by the males. The larvae develop directly into the eggs and hatch without a tadpole in the water.
System
The genus was first described in 1820 by Blasius Breviceps Merrem. Merrem took the time known as the " Arched short head " Breviceps gibbosus, which had already been mentioned by Carl Linnaeus in his work Systema naturae, as a type specimen of the genus, which at that time did not include other species. Currently, 16 species are described:
- Breviceps acutirostris Poynton, 1963
- Breviceps adspersus Peters, 1882
- Breviceps bagginsi Minter, 2003
- Breviceps Branchi Channing, 2012
- Breviceps fichus Channing and Minter, 2004
- Breviceps fuscus Hewitt, 1925
- Breviceps gibbosus (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Breviceps macrops Boulenger, 1907
- Breviceps montanus Power, 1926
- Breviceps mossambicus Peters, 1854
- Breviceps namaquensis Power, 1926
- Breviceps POWERi Parker, 1934
- Breviceps rosei Power, 1926
- Breviceps sopranus Minter, 2003
- Breviceps sylvestris FitzSimons, 1930
- Breviceps verrucosus Rapp, 1842