Genera: 2 – Sechellophryne and Sooglossus
Number of Species: 4
The family Sooglossidae is a small family of frogs from the Seychelles Islands. They are closely related to the Purple Frogs (family Nasikabatrachidae) and some people have even added the Purple Frogs to this family. Both families are the only families in the suborder Neobatrachia that do inguinal amplexus, where the male grasps the female around the waist during breeding.
Most of the family has direct developing eggs except for the Seychelles Frog Sooglossus sechellensis, whose eggs hatch into tadpoles and then the male carries them on his back. The family is highly terrestrial and even lay their eggs on land. The frogs are generally very small, with the Gardiner’s Seychelles Frog (Sechellophryne gardineri) reaching max lengths of under a half a inch.
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