#Gephyromantis

[markscherz]

Is there any frog species you have a grudge against?

Meet Gephyromantis (Phylacomantis) pseudoasper

Peak calling activity? Between 3 and 4 am 😡

Its preferred perch? The canvas of my tent 🙃

The decibels of its call? Jet-engine levels 🫨

The sound? Fuckin' Star Wars lasers.

[frogs-from-bogs]

Gephyromantis boulengeri by Stephen Zozaya

[funkyfrogoftheday]

today's funky frog of the day: Boettger's grainy frog (Gephyromantis horridus)!!! endemic to madagascar, this frog is considered endangered due to habitat loss.

photo by Devin Edmonds

[animalids]

White Folohy Madagascar frog (Gephyromantis luteus)

Photo by Frank Vassen

[ela-kurilina]

#tropicalforest #tropicalfrog #forestconservation #madagascaranimals #nosykomba #wildlifedrawing #reptiles #reptiledrawing #realisticdrawings #pencildrawing #procreateart #animalillustration #gephyromantis #gephyromantisgranulatus #animalstudy #studydrawing #frogillustration https://www.instagram.com/p/Bwwa0kblKfk/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1kshkyqmzbvq2

[frogs-are-awesome]

Gephyromantis asper von Stephen Zozaya Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar.

[markscherz]

Whats the weirdest frog (species or just really funky individual) you’ve encountered?

I co-discovered this species, Gephyromantis lomorina, which really doesn't very closely resemble any other frogs in Madagascar. It blew my mind when we first collected it. So gracile, so fragile.

[markscherz]

Show me your best boi

This Gephyromantis ambohitra is singing his heart out. What a good chap.

[markscherz]

How many frogs have you discovered? Was it just the minis or was there more?

I've contributed to the description of 90 frog species and 32 reptiles so far; you can find a full list, regularly updated, here: http://www.markscherz.com/species

As for how many of these I discovered (defined as me having collected the first or only specimens known to science), that is a more difficult question. I think there are only five described so far: Gephyromantis saturnini, Gephyromantis tohatra, Rhombophryne ellae, Stumpffia bishopi, Lygodactylus tantsaha. Rhombophryne ellae is a bit of a grey zone, because we found out later that another specimen has been collected about a decade earlier, but not realised to be a distinct species. There are also some cases, like Calumma ratnasariae and Gephyromantis angano and G. lomorina, where one or two specimens were known beforehand, and already thought to constitute a new species, but I collected some of the key specimens that made it possible to describe the species. But I guess from the purist perspective, those five are it for now.

More are coming, though! There is for instance this very charming Rhombophryne that I discovered in 2016 that I hope to be able to describe this year.

[markscherz]

Hot damn. Great question, I'd love to tell you.

High Fantasy

Look, this rainfrog is called Breviceps bagginsi, so I don't have a lot of choice, now do I?

[src]

Also, I would go with them to the end. Into the very fires of Mordor.

Low Fantasy

Phyllomedusine hylids have a certain weird clown marionette vibe to them. Just look at these Pithecopus rohdei.

[src]

Lovecraftian

The male Rhinoderma darwinii raises his tadpoles in his vocal sac.

Sci-Fi

Gephyromantis pseudoasper sometimes wear handsome stripes—very Space Age™

But more importantly, their calls evoke a battle with laser-blasters.

I filmed this calling male in 2017 at an obscene hour of the morning.

Horror

Trichobatrachus robustus, aka the Hairy Frog, has flanks and thighs covered in weird, hair-like outgrowths that increase oxygen exchange over its skin, and BREAKS ITS FINGERS TO STAB YOU WITH CLAWS MADE OF BONE

[src]

Romance

Breviceps males physically glue themselves to the back-ends of females, and if that's not romance, I don't know what is.

[src]

Comedy

Nyctimantis arapapa are probably amongst the funniest-looking frogs out there.

[src]

Adult

The 'poly' in Polypedates may be a double entendre

[src]

Crime and Mystery

Calyptocephalella gayi is a Galaxy Brain frog.

[src]

Speculative

Myobatrachus gouldii is basically what would happen if you decided to try to build a turtle, but you only had frog pieces in the kit.

[src]

[markscherz]

This might be a weird question but I can't think of a better person to ask! My nibling recently came out as non-binary and wants to change their name, but they're struggling to find something they are happy with.

They were given a feminine name at birth and are currently using a masculine name, but aren't happy with either of them. Every human name that's suggested to them is either too masc, too femme, or has poor associations. However, they love frogs, so I wondered if that might be a solution.

I've tried to find frog names that might work as a human name, but so far I'm not having much luck. It's not allowed to start with R or J, and apparently it's not allowed to have an X in it because nibling thinks they're "not cool enough" to carry that off (I've tried explaining that they're wrong, but 16 year olds are very sensitive).

If this isn't too weird a question, can you think of any frog or toad names that might be manageable as human names? We live in the UK for reference

So many thanks for even reading this giant info dump 💕

Wow this is only the second time I have gotten to help find a name for a human. What an honour.

Okay firstly, sounds 100% like your nibling is cool enough to use an X (despite my current negative emotions associated with the letter due to the Elongated Muskrat), and there are some *amazing* names out there with X's in, so they should at least consider them. Scinax and Ixalus for instance are great. Ixalus has a fun history: originally it was coined as a replacement name for Orchestes, which wasn't available because there was already a beetle genus called Orchestes. But then it turned out that Ixalus was *also* not available, because the world's most beautiful antelope, the bongo, was already called Ixalus. Only, the bongo had already been called Tragelaphus. So now Ixalus isn't the name used for *any* animal. Ixalus is Greek, meaning 'bounding, springing, spry'. Also there are numerous other frog genera that use the ending -ixalus, such as Heterixalus, Micrixalus, etc.

But, taking the lack of X seriously, here are some other alternatives. I will avoid names that are derived from other people's names, and focus on names that have a neutral ring to my ear, and are also euphonious (nice to say or hear) and fewer than four syllables. I am also only considering genus names, because there are too many species names to choose from:

Acris — meaning sharp, sour, bitter, pungent, sharp, keen, acute, energetic, eager, etc. Technically this is the feminine version of the adjective; the neuter version is Acre, but I do not think anyone would read 'Acris' and immediately think either gender. It is supposed to be pronounced with a long a, as in 'hard', but a lot of people pronounce it with a hard a as in 'ace'. This name is most familiar to Americans, because Acris are cricket frogs, widespread in the US.

[Acris crepitans, src]

Mantis — of course, the genus Mantis was coined by Linnaeus in 1758, and so it is unambiguous that this is not a frog name. However, it is very often used as part of frog taxonomic names, such as Chiromantis, Boehmantis, Guibemantis, Gephyromantis, Phlyctimantis etc. Mantis is Greek (μάντης), and means oracle, prophet, soothsayer, seer, clairvoyant, or fortune teller. The name has the feminine gender in its language of origin, but that has no bearing on its use, which, barring the character in the Marvel movies, does not seem particularly gendered to me.

[Pristimantis cruentus, src]

Dasypops — simply a delightful name, but probably not neutral enough. I have not been able to figure out what the etymology is; it might be a play on Dasypus, the Greek word meaning 'rough-footed', which is a genus of armadillos. The frog is also spectacular, but there are no photos I can legally share on tumblr.

Kaloula — a euphonic name with an unclear meaning. Very round frogs. I love them.

[Kaloula pulchra, src]

Adelotus — means 'unseen'. These are 'tusked frogs'. Males have crazy extensions of lower jaw bones, and they fight with them.

[Adelotus brevis, src]

Taruga — a Sanskrit name meaning 'tree climber'. I fucking love this name, and the frogs are just *chef's kiss* POINTY, and have really committed to bold colours.

[Taruga eques, src]

EDIT: I have been informed that taruga means ‘blockhead’ or ‘numb skull’ in Spanish, so it might not be the best choice. Sorry!

If the nibling would like to check out a list of genera themselves, there is a tolerably complete list here.

I hope this helps!

[frogs-from-bogs]

Gephyromantis blanci by Devin Edmonds

[frogs-from-bogs]

Gephyromantis decaryi by Miguel Vences

[frogs-from-bogs]

Gephyromantis leucocephalus by Jessica Weinberg McClosky