Anurans inhabiting Australia’s semi-arid and arid zones display eruptive breeding patterns. They emerge in large numbers to reproduce after significant rainfall before burrowing deep underground, where they remain concealed for extensive periods until favourable conditions return. This cryptic life history hinders documentation of the natural history and ecology of arid adapted amphibians of Australia. Fundamental information for some species such as geographic distribution thus remains uncertain. Here, we report range extensions for two species of Cyclorana. Cyclorana are a genus of 14 burrowing frog species that occupy arid, semi-arid and monsoonal regions of Australia. We document a 188 km southerly range extension of Cyclorana cryptotis, and an 88 km northerly extension for Cyclorana maini; both within the Davenport Murchison Ranges bioregion of the Northern Territory. Our observation of C. cryptotis is significant as it is the first record of the species in the Davenport Murchison Ranges bioregion.

burrowing frog, Hylidae, distribution, rainfall, ecology, semi-arid, subtropical, observation, cryptic, remote
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