[1] They are an ecologically and biogeographically diverse group of toads, including micro-endemic species such as Incilius spiculatus that are restricted to undisturbed cloud forests, and widespread lowland species such as Incilius valliceps that predominantly occur in disturbed habitats.

[4] This genus was first described in 1863 by Edward Drinker Cope who designated the type species as Incilius coniferus.

Taxonomy and systematics of the toads now considered to be classified in this genus had seen many changes after Incilius was resurrected to split Bufo in the less than a decade before this 2011 paper.

Incilius did not see wide recognition before the large-scale revision of amphibian systematics by Darrel Frost and colleagues in 2006,[6] then under the name Cranopsis, including the former "Bufo valliceps group" and some related species.

[1] One fossil species, Incilius praevius (Tihen, 1951), is known from the Early Miocene (Hemingfordian) of Florida.