Leptopelis grandiceps Ahl, 1929

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

Leptopelis grandiceps Ahl, 1929, Sitzungsber. Ges. Naturforsch. Freunde Berlin, 1929: 207. Syntypes: ZMB (2 specimens) unnumbered, according to the original publication. These are ZMB 25307A–B, according to Gvoždík, Tillack, Menegon, and Loader, 2014, Zootaxa, 3793: 167, who (p. 173) designated 25307A lectotype. Type locality: "Deutsch-Ost-Afrika (Amani)", Tanzania. See comment. 

Leptopelis usambarae Ahl, 1929, Sitzungsber. Ges. Naturforsch. Freunde Berlin, 1929: 205. Holotype: ZMB unnumbered, according to the original publication. ZMB 25314 identified as the holotype by Gvoždík, Tillack, Menegon, and Loader, 2014, Zootaxa, 3793: 175. Type locality: "Usambara", Tanzania; likely the East Usambara Mountains according to  Gvoždík, Tillack, Menegon, and Loader, 2014, Zootaxa, 3793: 175. Synonymy with Leptopelis uluguruensis by Loveridge, 1957, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 117: 319–20; Schiøtz, 1975, Treefrogs E. Afr.: 46; with Leptopelis grandiceps by Gvoždík, Tillack, Menegon, and Loader, 2014, Zootaxa, 3793: 165.

Leptopelis (Heteropelis) usambarae — Laurent, 1941, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 35: 101.

Common Names

Large Headed Forest Treefrog (Gvoždík, Tillack, Menegon, and Loader, 2014, Zootaxa, 3793: 182). 

Wide-headed Tree Frog (Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 228). 

Distribution

Montane rainforests of the East Usambara Mountains, and, with less taxonomic certainty, Nguu, Nguru, Ukaguru, Uluguru (including montane and lowland elevation forests), Rubeho, Udzungwa (all Eastern Arc Mountains), and Mt. Rungwe and Livingstone Mts. in Southern Highlands, Tanzania, 170 to 2020 m elevation; single record for extreme southern Kenya on the coastal plain.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Kenya, Tanzania

Comment

The name Leptopelis barbouri was removed from the synonymy of Leptopelis aubryi by Schiøtz, 1975, Treefrogs E. Afr.: 48, where it had been placed by Loveridge, 1933, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 74: 346, and applied to this species and from that time until 2014 that was the name in general use. In 2014 Gvoždík, Tillack, Menegon, and Loader, 2014, Zootaxa, 3793: 165–187, redescribed the species showed that the type of "Leptopelis barbouri" is actually a member of the species now called Leptopelis flavomaculatus, and that the type of Leptopelis grandiceps (until then considered a synonym of Leptopelis uluguruensis) is of the same species as the old "Leptopelis barbouri", to which they applied the name Leptopelis grandiceps. Schiøtz, 1999, Treefrogs Afr.: 283–284, Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 196–197, and Pickersgill, 2007, Frog Search: 485–487, provided accounts as Leptopelis barbouri. See photograph, map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 289, as Leptopelis barbouri. Channing, Rödel, and Channing, 2012, Tadpoles of Africa: 109, reported on comparative tadpole morphology as Leptopelis barbouri.  Harper, Measey, Patrick, Menegon, and Vonesh, 2010, Field Guide Amph. E. Arc Mts. Tanzania and Kenya: 64–65, provided a brief account (as Leptopelis barbouri) for the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania. Penske, Gvoždík, Menegon, Loader, and Müller, 2015, Herpetol. J., 25: 61–64, described the tadpole of a closely related populations (as Leptopelis cf. grandiceps) from the Uluguru Mountains and suggested that it might represent a distinct species. Spawls, Wasonga, and Drewes, 2019, Amph. Kenya: 8, provided a range map for Kenya, photograph, and brief characterization. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 228–229, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. 

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