[3][4][5] Most adult brevicipitine frogs are not easily seen as they spend extended periods of time in soil or leaf litter.

[6] Many species show strong sexual size dimorphism, with females being much larger than males.

[1] At least the frogs in Breviceps and Probreviceps genera breed by direct development, in which small froglets emerge from eggs without intervening aquatic tadpole phase.

Because male Breviceps frogs are smaller than their female counterparts, amplexus is not possible; however mating pairs glue themselves together using excretions from holocrine glands on the ventrum of the male and similar glands on the dorsum of the back of the female.

[7] The frogs lay small clutches of 13–56 fairly large eggs (4–8 mm diameter not including the protective capsule) in cover, often in burrows.