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

Leptopelis natalensis (Smith, 1849)

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

Polypedates natalensis Smith, 1849, Illust. Zool. S. Afr., 3 (Appendix): 25. Holotype: BMNH according to Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 135; now numbered BM 1947.2.20.10 (originally 1858.11.25.18), according to museum records. Type locality: "on the leaf of a thick reed, growing on the marshy banks of a small river to the westward of Port Natal [= Durban]", KwaZulu-Natal, Rep. South Africa; given as "Natal" (=KwaZulu-Natal), Rep. South Africa by Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 135.

Eucnemis bucephalus Günther, 1859 "1858", Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus.: 144. Nomen nudum coined in synonymy of Polypedates natalensis Smith, 1849.

Leptopelis natalensis — Günther, 1859 "1858", Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus.: 144; Ahl, 1931, Das Tierreich, 55: 248; Poynton, 1964, Ann. Natal Mus., 17: 168.

Hylambates natalensis — Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 135.

Hylambates (Leptopelis) natalensis — Wager, 1965, Frogs S. Afr.: fig. 26.

Common Names

Raucous Tree Frog (Hewitt, 1937, Guide Vert. Fauna E. Cape Province, Rept. Amph. Fishes: 113; Passmore and Carruthers, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 19: 6; Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 218).

Forest Tree Frog (Wager, 1965, Frogs S. Afr.: 183; Passmore and Carruthers, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 19: 6; Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 218).

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

Natal Tree Frog (Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 204; Bishop, 2004, in Minter et al. (eds.), Atlas Frogs S. Afr. Lesotho and Swaziland: 160; Du Preez and Carruthers, 2009, Compl. Guide Frogs S. Afr.: 98).

Distribution

Coastal forests of coastal eastern Eastern Cape Province into northeastern KwaZulu-Natal, Rep. South Africa; possibly to be found in adjacent southern Mozambique.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: South Africa

Endemic: South Africa

Comment

See accounts by Poynton, 1964, Ann. Natal Mus., 17: 168-169, Lambiris, 1988, Lammergeyer, 39: 121-122, Schiøtz, 1999, Treefrogs Afr.: 307–308, Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 204-205, Bishop, 2004, in Minter et al. (eds.), Atlas Frogs S. Afr. Lesotho and Swaziland: 160-162, Pickersgill, 2007, Frog Search: 496-499, and Du Preez and Carruthers, 2009, Compl. Guide Frogs S. Afr.: 99-99. Pietersen, Havemann, and Retief, 2008, Afr. Herp News, 46: 22-23, reported the species in northern KwaZulu-Natal near the Mozambique border and suggested that it may be found in that country. Channing, Rödel, and Channing, 2012, Tadpoles of Africa: 115, reported on comparative tadpole morphology. Schweiger, Harvey, Otremba, Weber, and Müller, 2017, Acta Herpetol., Firenze, 12: 125–132, discussed described the larvae and noted variation and inconsistencies in previous literature. Phaka, Netherlands, Kruger, and Du Preez, 2017, Bilingual Field Guide Frogs Zululand: 21, provided a photograph, Zululand regional map, and a brief account of life history and identification. Du Preez and Carruthers, 2017, Frogs S. Afr., Compl. Guide: 100–101, provided a brief account for southern Africa, including a polygon range map, photograph, identification features, adult and larval morphology, habitat, and call. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 230–231, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map.

External links:

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For access to general information see Wikipedia
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For access to relevant technical literature search Google Scholar
For images search CalPhoto Images and Google Images
To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
For information on distribution, habitat, and conservation see the Map of Life
For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist
For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.