These are tiny toads, up to 18 mm long (mostly about 10 mm). The head is very short, much shorter than the length of the body. On the back there is a bone plate fused with vertebrae and skin. For this, the genus was called "saddle-toad." On the front legs only 2 fingers, on the hind legs 3-4. Coloring bright orange or yellow. The skin is smooth, contains a powerful poison - tetrodotoxin [2] .
Most species live on just a few mountain peaks in Brazilian foggy forests . Considerable time is spent in the forest litter . Active during the day, feed on invertebrates .
These are oviparous amphibians. Females lay eggs in the soil or under the forest litter. Development occurs exclusively in the egg, the stage of the tadpole is absent.
Endemic to southeastern Brazil (states of Parana and Santa Catarina ).
As of November 2018, 36 species are included in the genus [3] :
- Brachycephalus actaeus Monteiro et al. 2018
- Brachycephalus albolineatus Bornschein et al. , 2016
- Brachycephalus alipioi Pombal & Gasparini, 2006
- Brachycephalus atelopoide Miranda-Ribeiro, 1920
- Brachycephalus auroguttatus Ribeiro et al. 2015
- Brachycephalus boticario Pie et al. 2015
- Brachycephalus brunneus Ribeiro et al. 2005
- Brachycephalus bufonoides Miranda-Ribeiro, 1920
- Brachycephalus coloratus Ribeiro et al. , 2017
- Brachycephalus crispus Condez et al. , 2014
- Brachycephalus curupira Ribeiro et al. , 2017
- Brachycephalus darkside Guimarães et al. , 2017
- Brachycephalus didactylus (Izecksohn, 1971)
- Brachycephalus ephippium (Spix, 1824) - Saddle-toad
- Brachycephalus ferruginus Alves et al. , 2006
- Brachycephalus fuscolineatus Pie et al. 2015
- Brachycephalus garbeana Miranda-Ribeiro, 1920
- Brachycephalus guarani Clemente-Carvalho et al. , 2012
- Brachycephalus hermogenesi (Giaretta & Sawaya, 1998)
- Brachycephalus izecksohni Ribeiro et al. 2005
- Brachycephalus leopardus Ribeiro, Firkowski & Pie, 2015
- Brachycephalus margaritatus Pombal & Izecksohn, 2011
- Brachycephalus mariaeterezae Bornschein et al. 2015
- Brachycephalus mirissimus Pie et al. 2018
- Brachycephalus nodoterga Miranda-Ribeiro, 1920
- Brachycephalus olivaceus Bornschein et al. 2015
- Brachycephalus pernix Pombal, Wistuba & Bornschein, 1998
- Brachycephalus pitanga Alves et al. , 2009
- Brachycephalus pombali Alves et al. , 2006
- Brachycephalus pulex Napoli et al. , 2011
- Brachycephalus quiririensis Pie & Ribeiro, 2015
- Brachycephalus sulfuratus Condez et al. , 2016
- Brachycephalus toby Haddad et al. , 2010
- Brachycephalus tridactylus Garey et al. , 2012
- Brachycephalus verrucosus Ribeiro et al. 2015
- Brachycephalus vertebralis Pombal, 2001
