Scinax Wagler, 1830

Scinax Wagler, 1830:201 . Type species: Hyla aurata Wied, 1821, by subsequent designation (Stejneger, 1907:76). Garbeana Miranda-Ribeiro, 1926:95. Type species: Garbeana garbei by monotypy.

Definition. Small to medium-sized frogs with slightly truncate discs on fingers and toes, webbing reduced between fingers and absent between Fingers I and II (Fig. 10 D); venter immaculate; eggs deposited in ponds.

Content. Sixty-three species: Scinax acuminatus (Cope), altae* (Dunn), alter* (Lutz), baumgardneri* (Rivero), blairi* (Fouquette & Pyburn), boesemani (Goin), boulengeri (Cope), cabralensis* Drummon, Baêta & Pires, caldarum* (Lutz), camposseabrai* (Bokermann), cardosoi * (Carvalho-e-Silva & Peixoto), castroviejoi* De la Riva, chiquitanus (De la Riva), constrictus* Lima, Bantos & Giaretta, cretatus* Nunes & Pombal, crospedospilus (Lutz), cruentommus (Duellman), curicica* Pugliese, Pombal & Sazima, cuspidatus* (Lutz), danae* (Duellman),? dolloi* Werner, duartei (Lutz), elaeochrous (Cope), eurydice* (Bokermann), exiguus* (Duellman), funereus (Cope), fuscomarginatus (Lutz), fuscovarius (Lutz), garbei (Miranda-Ribeiro), granulatus* (Peters), hayii (Barbour), ictericus Duellman & Wiens, imbegue* Nunes, Kwet & Pombal, iquitorum* Moravec, Tuanama, Pérez-Peña & Lehr, jolyi Lescure & Marty, juncae* Nunes & Pombal, karenanneae* (Pyburn), kennedyi* (Pyburn), lindsayi * Pyburn,? madeirae * (Bokermann), manriquei* Barrio-Amorós, Orellana & Chacón-Ortiz, maracaya* (Cardoso & Sazima), nasicus (Cope), nebulosus (Spix), oreites Duellman and Wiens, pachycrus * (Miranda-Ribeiro), pedromedinae (Henle), perereca* Pombal, Haddad & Kasahara, proboscideus (Brongersma), quinquefasciatus (Fowler), rogerioi* Pugliese, Baêta & Pombal, rostratus (Peters), ruber (Laurenti), sateremawe* Stauro & Peloso, similis (Cochran), squalirostris (Lutz), staufferi (Cope), sugillatus (Duellman), tigrinus * Nunes, Carvalho & Pereira, tymbamirim* Nunes, Kwet & Pombal, villasboasi* Brusquetti, Jansen, Barrio-Amorós, Segalla & Haddad, wandae* (Pyburn & Fouquette), and x-signatus (Spix) .

Distribution. Tropical Mexico through Central America to extreme northern Peru west of the Andes; east of the Andes through South America southward to Uruguay and northern Argentina, including Tobago, Trinidad, and Saint Lucia in the Lesser Antilles.

Etymology. The generic name is derived from the Greek skinos meaning quick or nimble, an appropriate name for these agile frogs. The gender is masculine.

Remarks. See preceding Remarks in the account of Ololygon . Only 28 of the 64 species of Scinax (44%) are included in our analysis of DNA sequences (Fig. 4). The clade recognized herein as Scinax is well supported (94%). Within Scinax, one clade with only 71% support contains eight species of the S. rostratus Group (Fig. 10 E), originally defined by Duellman (1972a). Many of the other poorly supported clades in Scinax contain Cis-Andean and eastern Brazilian species. Structurally S. pedromedinae (Fig. 10 F) is like members of the S. rostratus Group, but in our tree (Fig. 4) it is not within that group. Many named taxa are known only from the type localities, whereas the widespread S. ruber certainly is a composite of several species as evidenced by differences in color patterns, webbing, and calls (Duellman, 2005).