Tadpoles, the premetamorphic life stage   of many frogs and toads, play a key role in anuran biology, and are the focus   of various aspects of anuran research (McDiarmid & Altig 1999). The   usually aquatic larval stage and the corresponding adults are exposed to   notably different selective regimes due to the biphasic life cycle of anurans   (e.g., Haas & Das 2011). Among terrestrial vertebrates, this unique   free-living larval stage is considered a particularly suitable indicator of   adaptive radiation processes in the evolutionary context of lineage   diversification (Bossuyt & Milinkovitch 2000; Roelants et al. 2011).   Under the conditions of current climate change, anuran larvae are of   interest, as numerous effects of varying abiotic factors (e.g., temperature,   availability of water, ultraviolet radiation) can be observed in tadpoles and   tadpole communities (Reading 2002; Blaustein et al. 2003; Blaustein et al.   2010). Furthermore, extended amplitudes in temperature are correlated with   chytrid fungus infection in tadpoles (Hamilton et al. 2012), as the latter   host and transport the pathogen on their external keratinous mouthparts   (Marantelli et al. 2004; Wake & Vredenburg 2008; Venesky et al. 2011).   Given that larvae usually occupy different habitats than the adults, tadpoles   are also important to conservation issues such as the global decline of   amphibians that is attributed to habitat alteration (Becker et al. 2007).   Properly characterising anuran larvae can assist with distinguishing species   and inferring phylogenetic relationships (Eterovick & Sazima 2000; Vences   et al. 2010a).

蝌蚪是许多青蛙和蟾蜍的变态前生命阶段，在无尾类生物学中起着关键作用，是许多无尾类研究中关注的焦点（McDiarmid & Altig 1999）。由于无尾两栖动物的双相生命周期（如Haas   & Das 2011），通常的水生幼体期和相应的成体暴露在选择机制明显不同的环境中。在陆生脊椎动物中，这种独特的自由生活幼体阶段被认为是在谱系多样化的进化背景下适应性辐射过程的一个特别合适的标志（Bossuyt &   Milinkovitch 2000; Roelants et al. 2011）。在当前气候变化的条件下，由于在蝌蚪和蝌蚪群落中可以观察到许多不同的非生物因素（如温度、水的可利用性、紫外线辐射）的影响（阅读2002；Blaustein et al. 2003; Blaustein et al. 2010）。此外，温度的宽幅变动与蝌蚪乳糜真菌感染相关（Hamilton et al. 2012），后者作为宿主，进一步通过其外部角质口器传播病原体（Marantelli et al.   2004; Wake & Vredenburg 2008; Venesky et al. 2011）。考虑到蝌蚪通常与成体占据不同的栖息地，蝌蚪对一些保护问题也很重要，例如由于栖息地变化导致两栖动物的全球衰退（Becker et al. 2007）。正确描述蝌蚪的特征有助于区分物种和推断其系统发育关系（Eterovick &   Sazima 2000; Vences et al. 2010a）。