Occidozyga martensii, known as Marten’s Oriental frog, Marten’s floating frog, or the round-tongue floating frog, is a small but robust frog in family Dicroglossidae.It is common and abundant in its habitat, with a widespread native range from southwestern and southern China, throughout Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Lao Peoples’ Democratic Republic and Viet Nam.While it has not yet been recorded from Myanmar, it is presumed to occur in the eastern hills (van Dijk et al. 2004).
Marten’s Oriental frog is common to moist forests, especially on slopes, living at a range of altitudes spanning 10-10000 m asl. It can be found active during the daytime in still waters that include puddles, small pools, seeps, and paddy fields (Grismer et al. 2007; Hakim 2012). Marten’s Oriental frog tolerates highly anthropogenically altered habitats, occurring even in cities, such as Bangkok, and has no significant threats other than loss of forest cover (van Dijk et al. 2004, Hakim 2012).
These small frogs have bumpy, olive-brown colored skin on their dorsal side and are lighter on their belly.They sometimes have a orange-brown/red line down their back.They call with high-pitched squeaks, often from within the water.As their name implies, they have a rounded tongue, as do others in genus Occidozyga.They lay unpigmented eggs and their small tadpoles live buried in soft mud at the bottom of the water (Hakim 2012).
Molecular analyses give strong evidence that the family Dicroglossidae is monophyletic.Recently the entire mitochondrial genome of the Marten’s Oriental frog was sequenced.Phylogentic analysis using these mitochondrial markers indicates that this frog (and genus Occidozyga, which contains 11 other species) are the basal lineage of family Dicroglossidae.More taxonomic work is needed to determine whether O. magnapustulosus is synonymous with O. martensii (Li et al. 2014; van Dijk et al. 2004; Taylor 1962)
