Leptobrachella heteropus (Boulenger, 1900)
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Leptobrachella heteropus - Variable Litter Frog in Yala, Thailand. Photo by Ian Dugdale. Original iNaturalist observation here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/301781629
Ian Dugdale · CC BY 4.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
Leptobrachella heteropus (Malaysian Asian toad or variable litter frog) is a frog species in the family Megophryidae. It is found in the Malay Peninsula, both in Malaysia and southern Thailand. The type locality is Maxwell Hill in Taiping, Perak, Malaysia. Its natural habitats are tropical moist lowland forests, moist montane forests, and rivers. It is not considered threatened by the IUCN.
Male Leptobrachella heteropus grow to snout-vent length of 24–29 mm (0.94–1.14 in) and females to 32–36 mm (1.3–1.4 in). These frogs are usually encountered while perched on the leaves of small plants close to the ground. The call of male L. heteropus is short and consists of a short series of 3–6 notes, the first note being longer in duration and higher in dominant frequency than subsequent ones. The call characteristics are among the features that separate this species from superficially similar Leptobrachella solus. Indeed, frogs reported from Thailand as Leptobrachella heteropus might actually be the relatively recently (2006) described L. solus.
Wikipedia contributors, Leptobrachella heteropus; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T16:49:58.785605+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Leptobrachella heteropus (Boulenger, 1900)
- Name authority
- (Boulenger, 1900)
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Amphibia
- Order
- Anura
- Family
- Megophryidae
- Genus
- Leptobrachella
- Extinction status
- Recorded extant
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classAmphibia
- orderAnura
- familyMegophryidae Bonaparte, 1850
- subfamilyLeptobrachiinae Dubois, 1980
- genusLeptobrachella Smith, 1925
- speciesLeptobrachella heteropus (Boulenger, 1900)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Leptobrachella. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Leptobrachella applebyi (Rowley & Cao, 2009) | MegophryidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Leptobrachella ardens (Rowley, Tran, Le, Dau, Peloso, Nguyen, Hoang, Nguyen & Ziegler, 2016) | MegophryidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Leptobrachella bidoupensis (Rowley, Le, Tran & Hoang, 2011) | MegophryidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Leptobrachella bijie Wang, Li, Li, Chen & Wang, 2019 | MegophryidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Leptobrachella brevicrus Dring, 1983 | MegophryidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Leptobrachella dringi (Dubois, 1987) | MegophryidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Leptobrachella fuliginosa (Matsui, 2006) | MegophryidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Leptobrachella hamidi (Matsui, 1997) | MegophryidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Leptobrachella itiokai Eto, Matsui & Nishikawa, 2016 | MegophryidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Leptobrachella kalonensis (Rowley, Tran, Le, Dau, Peloso, Nguyen, Hoang, Nguyen & Ziegler, 2016) | MegophryidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Leptobrachella kecil (Matsui, Belabut, Ahmad & Yong, 2009) | MegophryidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Leptobrachella lateralis (Anderson, 1871) | MegophryidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Leptolalax heteropus (Boulenger, 1900) (Boulenger, 1900) | synonym |
| Megophrys heteropus (Boulenger, 1900) (Boulenger, 1900) | synonym |
| Leptobrachium heteropus Boulenger, 1900 Boulenger, 1900 | synonym |
| Megalophrys heteropus (Boulenger, 1900) (Boulenger, 1900) | synonym |
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=1103122 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:3TK9M. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.