Spicicalyx Donnellan, Mahony & Richards, 2025

Donnellan, Stephen C., Mahony, Michael J., Esquerré, Damien, Brennan, Ian G., Price, Luke C., Lemmon, Alan, Lemmon, Emily Moriarty, Günther, Rainer, Monis, Paul, Bertozzi, Terry, Keogh, J. Scott, Shea, Glenn M. & Richards, Stephen J., 2025, Phylogenomics informs a generic revision of the Australo-Papuan treefrogs (Anura: Pelodryadidae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 204 : -

Spicicalyx Donnellan, Mahony & Richards , gen. nov.

( Fig. 27)

ZooBank LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:CC448528-5A9C-4851-9371-13AA9D2CECCB Type species: Hyla genimaculata Horst, 1883 .

Content: Five species— Spicicalyx eucnemis * ( Lönnberg, 1900) comb. nov., Spicicalyx exophthalmia * ( Tyler, Davies & Aplin 1986) comb. nov., Spicicalyx genimaculata * ( Horst, 1883) comb. nov., Spicicalyx myola * ( Hoskin, 2007) comb. nov., Spicicalyx serrata * ( Andersson, 1916) comb. nov.

Diagnosis: Spicicalyx can be diagnosed from members of the sister clade as follows: from Melvillihyla and Rhyaconastes by the presence vs. absence of a vocal sac, presence vs. absence of crenulated ornamentation of the hindlimbs, presence vs. absence of a heel spike, reduced or fully webbed vs. no finger webbing, and further from Melvillihyla by cartilaginous vs. ossified intercalary structures, overall tadpole morphology Type 4 vs. Type 5, large vs. small eggs, and further from Rhyaconastes by overall tadpole morphology Type 4 vs. Type 6, and oral disc Type 1 vs. Type 3. Refer to Tables 1 and 2.

Distribution and ecology: Arboreal frogs that breed in slow-flowing permanent streams in rainforest in north-eastern Australia and New Guinea and surrounding islands.

Etymology: From the Latin spica (point or spear) and calx (heel), referring to the spike on the heel that is generally present in members of this genus. We emended calx to the more euphonious calyx for use in the name. Calx is feminine.

Remarks: Spicicalyx is the equivalent of the Litoria eucnemis Group of Tyler and Davies (1978).