Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
Single word	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Arthroleptis variabilis Matschie, 1893

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Arthroleptidae > Subfamily: Arthroleptinae > Genus: Arthroleptis > Species: Arthroleptis variabilis

Arthroleptis variabilis Matschie, 1893, Sitzungsber. Ges. Naturforsch. Freunde Berlin, 1893: 173. Syntypes: ZMB (80 specimens), by original designation. Blackburn, Gonwouo, Ernst, and Rödel, 2009, Breviora, 515: 14, reported 85 specimens. Type locality: "Buea, Barombie, Kamerun [= Cameroon], West-Afrika.

Arthroleptis Seimundi Boulenger, 1905, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 7, 16: 180. Holotype: BMNH, by original designation; BMNH 1904.7.23.32 (reregistered 1947.2.6.43) by museum records. Type locality: "Fernando Po" (= Bioko, Equatorial Guinea). Synonymy by Boulenger, 1906, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 7, 17: 320.

Arthroleptis (Arthroleptis) variabilis — Laurent, 1941 "1940", Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 34: 85.

Abroscaphus variabilis — Laurent, 1957, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 56: 274-275, by implication.

English Names

Buea Screeching Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 37).

Variable Squeaker Frog (Blackburn, Gonwouo, Ernst, and Rödel, 2009, Breviora, 515: 14).

Variable Squeaker (Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 266).

Distribution

Lowland and montane rainforest from southern Nigeria through Cameroon and into Central African Republic, Rep. Congo, northern and northeastern Dem. Rep. Congo, Equatorial Guinea (including mainland and Bioko I.) and Gabon. See comment.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Congo, Republic of the, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria

Comment

Gabon record provided by Lötters, Gossmann, Obame, and Böhme, 2001, Herpetofauna, Weinstadt, 23: 22. Rödel and Branch, 2002, Salamandra, 38: 236, reported a species, similar to Arthroleptis variabilis, but smaller, from Ivory Coast. Rödel and Bangoura, 2004, Tropical Zool., 17: 213, noted differences between Cameroon and West African populations that suggest that these represent different species. Lasso, Rial, Castroviejo, and De la Riva, 2002, Graellsia, 58: 21-34, provided notes on ecological distribution in Equatorial Guinea. Schiøtz, 1963, Vidensk. Medd. Dansk Naturhist. Foren., 125: 31, provided records for Nigeria. Frétey, 2008, Alytes, 25: 99-172, summarized the literature. Blackburn, Gonwouo, Ernst, and Rödel, 2009, Breviora, 515: 1-23, redescribed the species, compared it to relevant species, provided extensive citation to relevant literature, and noted that West Africa specimens (Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia) correspond to various undescribed species. Rödel, Doumbia, Johnson, and Hillers, 2009, Zootaxa, 2302: 26, commented on records west of Nigeria being based on misidentifications. Larson and Zimkus, 2018, Herpetol. Conserv. Biol., 13: 244, briefly discussed the Gabon population. Dewynter and Frétey, 2019, Cah. Fondation Biotope, 27: 7, noted the literature for Gabon, provided photographs (p. 44) and noted that at least some specimens previously identified as this species from Gabon may actually be the more recently named Arthroleptis perreti. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 266–267, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. See brief account and photographs for Equatorial Guinea by Sánchez-Vialas, Calvo-Revuelta, Castroviejo-Fisher, and De la Riva, 2020, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 66: 148. Kako-Wanzalire, Mongo, Ilonga, Mapoli, Mbumba, Neema, Tungaluna, Itoka, and Bogaert, 2021, Tropicultura, 39 (1: 1709): 1–19, briefly discussed habitat preference in north-central and northeastern Dem. Rep. Congo. See comment by Badjedjea, Masudi, Akaibe, and Gvoždík, 2022, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 16 (1: e301): 42–43, who noted a likely unnamed species in central Dem. Rep. Congo (as Arthroleptis sp. aff. variabilis).

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For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
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For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.