Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Australia

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

South-eastern corner of South Australia into western Victoria. The extent of occurrence of the species is approximately 362000 km2

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
A variety of habitats encompassing those with moderate amounts of water to deserts. Open grassland, woodland. Appears only after heavy rains. Breed in autumn or winter and males call whilst floating in static water. Lay approximately 1000 eggs in a chain entwined with submerged vegetation.

Trends and Threats
Widespread. No apparent significant threats or any declines and extent of occurrence > 20,000km2.

Threats
None known.

Conservation Measures
None in place.

Comments
This species is diploid (Novikova et al. 2020).

This species was featured as News of the Week on 30 November 2020:

While common in plants, whole genome duplication, or polyploidy, is rare in animals. The animals that are polyploid tend to reproduce asexually. Notable exceptions in the amphibian world that display both polyploidy and sexual reproduction, include members of the Xenopus genus and Bufotes viridis complex. Novikova et al. (2020) investigated another system in the Australian genus Neobatrachus, where six members are diploid and three are tetraploid, to better understand the evolutionary role of polyploidism. They found asymmetric gene flow from the more isolated diploid species to tetraploids, which have wider distributions, as the origin of the polyploid species. Furthermore, these inter-specific hybrid tetraploids displayed more wide-spread gene flow and were more tolerant of climate-induced habitat loss, providing a potential rescue effect to species diversity in the genus. (AChang)

References

Barker, J., Grigg, G. C., and Tyler, M. J. (1995). A Field Guide to Australian Frogs. Surrey Beatty and Sons, New South Wales.

Moore, J.A. (1961). ''Frogs of eastern New South Wales.'' Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History , 121(3), 151-386.

Novikova PY, Brennan IG, Booker W, Mahony M, Doughty P, Lemmon AR, et al. (2020). "Polyploidy breaks speciation barriers in Australian burrowing frogs Neobatrachus." PLoS Genetics, 16(5), e1008769. [link]

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2021 Neobatrachus pictus: Painted Burrowing Frog <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/3531> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Dec 26, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 26 Dec 2024.

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