Indirana Semipalmata - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

Indirana semipalmata was first described by the Belgian-British zoologist George Albert Boulenger in 1882 as Rana semipalmata. The exact location the type specimen was collected from is unknown, but it was recorded as "Malabar", South India. The specific name (Latin for "half palmed") is in reference to its half-webbed toes, in contrast to Indirana beddomii which had two-thirds of their toes webbed and Indirana leptodactyla which only had a third of their toes webbed. In 1918, Boulenger included it under the (then) subgenus Discodeles of the genus Rana. In 1986, the Belgian zoologist Raymond Ferdinand Laurent separated it, along with other closely related species from India, to the genus Indirana.

The taxonomical position of the genus itself is still uncertain. Traditional classifications place it within the subfamily Ranixalinae of the family Ranidae, along with the genera Nannophrys and Nyctibatrachus. Ranixalinae is sometimes placed under the putative family Nyctibatrachidae, but is sometimes considered a full family, Ranixalidae. Darrel R. Frost et al. (2006) previously placed them within the family Petropedetidae. However, as of 2011, Frost and the American Museum of Natural History places them under Ranixalidae.

I. semipalmata does not have a widely used common name, but it has sometimes been referred to as the "brown leaping frog", "small-handed frog", and "South Indian frog".