Rain frogs
Brevicipitidae
The Brevicipitidae or rain frogs are a small family of frogs found in eastern and southern Africa. As of 2025, it contains 38 species in 5 genera. Formerly included as subfamily in Microhylidae (narrow-mouth frogs), phylogenetic research has indicated the brevicipitine frogs should be considered as a family, with Hemisotidae (shovelnose frogs) as the most closely related sister taxon.
Most adult brevicipitine frogs are not easily seen as they spend extended periods of time in soil or leaf litter. However, some species might be partly arboreal at times. Many species show strong sexual size dimorphism, with females being much larger than males.
5 branches of this family, most-observed first · about 38 known species
Rain Frogs
genusBreviceps
Warty Frogs
genusCallulina
Big-fingered Frogs
genusProbreviceps
Balebreviceps
genusBalebreviceps
Spelaeophryne
genusSpelaeophryne
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Brevicipitidae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 64729.