Hyperoliids are the Sedge and Bush Frogs of Africa, Madagascar, and Seychelles Islands. The genus Hyperolius (Reed and Lily frogs) has more than 100 species of small, often brightly colored and polymorphic species. The genus Kassina has medium-sized species that prefer to walk and even run in place of hopping. Leptopelis tend to be more properly "tree" frogs, whereas Hyperolius frequent sedges and rushes. Tornierella are specialized snail-eaters (Drewes and Roth, 1981). There are three subfamilies: Hyperoliinae, Kassininae, and Leptopelinae.

There is still a great deal of taxonomic confusion surrounding many of these species and they are often categorized into a bewildering array of groups, complexes and superspecies (Text from Harper et al., 2010).

This group contains many species of small, brightly colored frogs. They are commonly associated with reeds and other vegetation in and around water (Text from Harper et al., 2010).

 Hyperolius puncticulatus; photo © David Cannatella

 
 Kassina maculata; photo © David Cannatella

This family is restricted to sub-Saharan Africa.

All species in the family are arboreal and have prominent digital disks with the exception of the running frogs, Kassina maculata and Kassina senegalensis (Text from Harper et al., 2010).

• Hyperoliidae
  • Hyperoliinae
    • Callixalus
    • Chrysobatrachus
    • Cryptothylax
    • Heterixalus
    • Hyperolius
    • Opisthothylax
    • Tachycnemis
  • Kassininae
    • Afrixalus
    • Kassina
    • Kassinula
    • Phlyctimantis
    • Tornierella
  • Leptopelinae
    • Acanthixalus
    • Leptopelis

from Frost (1985)

Ford and Cannatella (1993) defined Hyperoliidae as the node-based name for the common ancestor of the hyperoliid taxa listed in Duellman and Trueb (1986:547) (Acanthixalus, Afrixalus, etc.), and all of its descendants. The two synapomorphies listed by Drewes (1984) were the lack of fusions of the second distal carpal and second tarsal elements, a condition he considered paedomorphic; these were not shared with any ranids. As discussed above, Laurent's data on these characters differed. Channing (1989) reanalyzed Drewes' (1984) data (slightly modified) on hyperoliids and a subset of Liem's (1970) data on hyperoliids and rhacophorids (including mantellines). Channing concluded that hyperoliids and rhacophorids (including mantellines) were each monophyletic and that they were sister-groups. However, given that he included no ranids in his analysis, Channing would be unable to demonstrate that they were not each others' closest relatives, even if one were paraphyletic with respect to the other.

  

Channing's re-analysis of Drewes' (1984) data assumed monophyly of Hyperoliidae, so synapomorphies were not listed. Channing's (1989:Fig. 1) analysis of Liem's (1970) combined data on hyperoliids and rhacophorids yielded 13 synapomorphies of Hyperoliidae including (1) presence of a dentomentalis muscle, (2) absence of a nuptial pad, (3) claw-shaped terminal phalanges, (4) absence of the posterolateral process of the hyoid, (5) vertical pupil, and (6) a cartilaginous sternum. Drewes (1984) did not examine characters 1 and 2, differed from Channing in the description of character 3, and indicated that characters 4, 5, and 6 were present in a more inclusive clade, including arthroleptines and astylosternines. Because Channing used "ranids" as the outgroup, without discriminating states in arthroleptines and astylosternines from other ranids, the number of synapomorphies for Hyperoliidae is likely inflated.

  

Duellman and Trueb (1986) used the presence of three tarsalia (unfused second tarsal; character Q) to unite hyperoliids and mantellines. However, Liem (1970) stated that the second tarsal was fused in all mantellines examined (three species of Mantidactylus and one of Aglyptodactylus). However, he indicated the second carpal was not fused in these taxa, a feature shared with hyperoliids.

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) Stats
                                                             

Specimen Records:	29
Specimens with Sequences:	19
Specimens with Barcodes:	19
Public Records:	19
Species:	7
Species With Barcodes:	6

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