Lynchius Explained

Lynchius is a genus of frogs in the family Strabomantidae. The name honours herpetologist John D. Lynch. The distribution of Lynchius is restricted to the Cordillera Oriental in southern Ecuador and Cordillera de Huancabamba in northern Peru.

Taxonomy

The genus is relatively new; it was split off from Phrynopus in 2008 in order to resolve the paraphyly of that genus.^[1] The sister taxon of Lynchius is Oreobates.

Description

Lynchius are relatively small frogs (snout–vent length up to 43mm in Lynchius flavomaculatus) with a narrow head, not as wide as body. Skin is smooth.

Species

The following species are recognised in the genus Lynchius:

• Lynchius flavomaculatus (Parker, 1938)
• Lynchius megacephalus Sánchez-Nivicela, Urgilés, Navarrete, Yánez-Muñoz, and Ron, 2019
• Lynchius nebulanastes (Cannatella, 1984)
• Lynchius oblitus Motta, Chaparro, Pombal, Guayasamin, De la Riva, and Padial, 2016
• Lynchius parkeri (Lynch, 1975)
• Lynchius simmonsi (Lynch, 1974)
• Lynchius tabaconas Motta, Chaparro, Pombal, Guayasamin, De la Riva, and Padial, 2016
• Lynchius waynehollomonae Venegas, García Ayachi, Ormeño, Bullard, Catenazzi, and Motta, 2021

Notes and References

1. Web site: Phrynopus Peters, 1873 . Frost, Darrel R. . 2014 . Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.0 . American Museum of Natural History . 5 July 2014.