The genus
Arthroleptides was first established by German zoologist
Fritz Nieden in 1911 after studying three specimens in the collection of the
Berlin Zoological Museum. These specimens represented a single species and were collected two years prior in
Amani, Muheza, Tanzania by herpetologist Paul Krefft and military commander Georg Martienssen. Nieden observed that the specimens bear some resemblance to frogs of the genera
Arthroleptis and
Petropedetes, yet also differed significantly enough from both that they belonged in a separate genus. He therefore established a new genus for this species, which he named
Arthroleptides martiensseni, with the generic name referencing the animal's similarities to
Arthroleptis. Nieden initially placed
Arthroleptides within the family
Ranidae, commonly referred to as the "true frogs". Later in 2006, Petropedetinae was elevated to family status and renamed as
Petropedetidae. A paper published in 2005 concluded that the presence or absence of vomerine teeth can vary within a genus and is not significant enough a difference to warrant separation of
Arthroleptides and
Petropedetes into different genera. Because
Petropedetes was named first,
Arthroleptides was declared a
junior synonym of it, and the species assigned to
Arthroleptides were moved into
Petropedetes. However, a phylogenetic study published in 2014 discovered that the
Arthroleptides species do indeed form a
monophyletic clade separate from the other
Petropedetes species, and thus resurrected
Arthroleptides as a
valid taxon. The following
cladogram shows the position of the this genus within the family Petropedetidae according to the study:
Species At the time it was established by Nieden,
Arthroleptides was a
monotypic taxon containing only
A. martiensseni, and thus it was designated as the
type species of the genus. However, later authors have assigned additional species to this genus. The three currently named species are: In addition, molecular evidence suggests that an undescribed species exists in the
Nguru Mountains. ==References==