Leptopelis brevirostris (Werner, 1898)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Arthroleptidae > Subfamily: Leptopelinae > Genus: Leptopelis > Species: Leptopelis brevirostris

Hylambates brevirostris Werner, 1898, Verh. Zool. Bot. Ges. Wien, 48: 199. Holotype: ZMB 13913 (according to Perret, 1962, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 65: 241); consideration of NHMW 3776 and 22879 (Häupl and Tiedemann, 1978, Kat. Wiss. Samml. Naturhist. Mus. Wien, 2: 20, and Häupl, Tiedemann, and Grillitsch, 1994, Kat. Wiss. Samml. Naturhist. Mus. Wien, 9: 24) as syntypes is apparently in error inasmuch as only a single specimen was noted in the original publication. Type locality: "Kamerun (ein Exemplar aus Victoria, . . .)".

Hylambates rufus var. brevirostrisAndersson, 1905, Ark. Zool., 2(20): 19.

Hylambates brevicornisSollas, 1906, Zool. Rec., 42: 38. Error for brevirostris.

Hylambates brevipes Boulenger, 1906 "1905", Ann. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Genova, Ser. 3, 2: 168. Holotype: MSNG 29946, according to Capocaccia, 1957, Ann. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Genova, Ser. 3, 69: 217. Type locality: "Musole [= Musola], Fernando Po [= Bioko], 500 to 800 m. altitude", Equatorial Guinea. Synonymy by Bell, McLaughlin, Jongsma, Blackburn, and Stuart, 2019, Afr. J. Herpetol., 68: 91. 

Leptopelis brevirostrisNoble, 1924, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 49: 234, 331.

Leptopelis brevipes — Ahl, 1931, Das Tierreich, 55: 229.

Leptopelis crystallinoron Lötters, Rödel, and Burger, 2005, Herpetol. J., 15: 149. Holotype: ZFMK 73139, by original designation. Type locality: "in forest in the vicinity of the Barrage de Tchimbélé (ca. 0° 37´ N, 10° 24´ E; about 560 m above sea level), Monts de Cristal, Gabon". Synonymy by Bell, McLaughlin, Jongsma, Blackburn, and Stuart, 2019, Afr. J. Herpetol., 68: 91. 

English Names

Cameroon Forest Treefrog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 69).

Short-headed Tree Frog (Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 218).

Crystal Tree Frog (Leptopelis crystallinoron [no longer recognized]: Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 218).

Musole Forest Treefrog (Leptopelis brevipes [no longer recognized]: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 69).

Distribution

Rainforests of southern Nigeria and Cameroon south through Equatorial Guinea and northwestern Rep. Congo to central Gabon; Bioko I.; possibly occurring in southwestern Central African Republic.

Geographic Occurrence

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

Likely/Controversially Present: Central African Republic

Comment

See comment under Leptopelis brevipes. Removed from the synonymy of Leptopelis rufus by Sollas, 1906, Zool. Rec., 42: 38 (implicitly), and by Noble, 1924, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 49: 234, 331, where it had been placed by Andersson, 1905, Ark. Zool., 2(20): 18. Gabon record by Lötters, Gossmann, Obame, and Böhme, 2001, Herpetofauna, Weinstadt, 23: 32 (including what they later named as Leptopelis crystallinoron. De la Riva, 1994, Rev. Esp. Herpetol., 8: 130, provided a record for Equatorial Guinea. Lasso, Rial, Castroviejo, and De la Riva, 2002, Graellsia, 58: 21–34, provided notes on ecological distribution in Equatorial Guinea. Jackson and Blackburn, 2007, Salamandra, 43: 149–164, provided a record for Nouabale-Ndoki National Park, Rep. Congo. See account for Cameroon by Amiet, 2012, Rainettes Cameroun: 479–486. Schiøtz, 1999, Treefrogs Afr.: 268, provided an account and map. Deichmann, Mulcahy, Vanthomme, Tobi, Wynn, Zimkus, and McDiarmid, 2017, PLoS One, 12 (11: e0187283): 15, noted an unnamed lineage in Gabon previously associated with Leptopelis brevirostrisDewynter and Frétey, 2019, Cah. Fondation Biotope, 27: 13, summarized the literature for Gabon and provided photographs (p. 49). Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 218–219, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Status of Leptopelis brevipes was questioned by Mertens, 1965, Bonn. Zool. Beitr., 16: 26-27, which was considered near to Leptopelis brevirostris (Werner) if not a synonym according to J.-L. Perret In Laurent, 1985, in Frost (ed.), Amph. Species World: 229. Lötters, Rödel, and Burger, 2005, Herpetol. J., 15: 151, regarded Leptopelis brevipes as a likely synonym of Leptopelis brevirostrisChanning and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 396, regarded Leptopelis brevipes as too insufficiently known to treat adequately in their fieldguide, and a likely synonym of Leptopelis brevirostrisBell, McLaughlin, Jongsma, Blackburn, and Stuart, 2019, Afr. J. Herpetol., 68: 91–117, reported on geographic variation in both genetics and morphology and placed both Leptopelis crystallinoron and Leptopelis brevipes in synonymy. See brief account, range map, and photographs for Equatorial Guinea in Sánchez-Vialas, Calvo-Revuelta, Castroviejo-Fisher, and De la Riva, 2020, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 66: 137–230. 

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