Sclerophrys gutturalis (Power, 1927)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Bufonidae > Genus: Sclerophrys > Species: Sclerophrys gutturalis

Bufo spinosus Barboza du Bocage, 1868 "1867", Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1867: 845. Holotype: MBL 324, not located in MBL by Perret, 1976, Arq. Mus. Bocage, Ser. 2, 6: 18, and would have been destroyed in 1978 fire. Type locality: "Benguella"; corrected to Dombe, Benguella, Angola by Perret, 1976, Arq. Mus. Bocage, Ser. 2, 6: 18. Formerly considered a synonym of Bufo regularis by Boulenger, 1881 "1880", Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1880: 560; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 299. Preoccupied by Bufo spinosus Daudin, 1803. Synonymy by Perret, 1976, Arq. Mus. Bocage, Ser. 2, 6: 18.

Bufo regularis gutturalis Power, 1927, Trans. R. Soc. S. Afr., 14: 416. Syntypes: MMK (originally 4 specimens, now presumably 3) and MCZ 15403 (on exchange from MMK, according to Barbour and Loveridge, 1946, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 96: 84). Type localities: "Lobatsi" and "Kuruman", Botswana-Northern Cape Province border, Rep. South Africa.

Bufo regularis gutteralis — Loveridge, 1929, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 151: 93. Incorrect subsequent spelling.

Bufo regularis ngamiensis FitzSimons, 1932, Ann. Transvaal Mus., 15: 40. Holotype: TMP (formerly Vernay-Lang Kalahari Expedition 1283), by original designation. Type locality: "Motlhatlogo, Ngamiland", Botswana. Synonymy by Poynton and Broadley, 1988, Ann. Natal Mus., 29: 452-453.

Bufo ngamiensis — Poynton, 1964, Ann. Natal Mus., 17: 55.

Bufo gutturalis — Tandy and Keith, 1972, in Blair (ed.), Evol. Genus Bufo: 159. Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 68.

Amietophrynus gutturalis — Frost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, de Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green, and Wheeler, 2006, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 297: 363.

Sclerophrys gutturalis — Ohler and Dubois, 2016, PeerJ, 4(e1553): 9.

English Names

Marbled Toad (Pienaar, 1963, Koedoe, 6: 78).

Common Toad (Wager, 1965, Frogs S. Afr.: 102; Passmore and Carruthers, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 19: 4; Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 68).

Common African Toad (Passmore and Carruthers, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 19: 4).

Guttural Toad (Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 68; Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 74; Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 39; Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 76; Du Preez and Carruthers, 2009, Compl. Guide Frogs S. Afr.: 142).

Square-marked Toad (Passmore and Carruthers, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 19: 4; Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 68).

Leopard Toad (Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 68).

Greater Cross-marked Toad (Lambiris, 1990 "1989", Monogr. Mus. Reg. Sci. Nat. Torino, 10: 52).

Lobatsi Toad (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 41).

Flat-backed Toad (Du Preez, Weldon, Cunningham, and Turner, 2004, in Minter et al. (eds.), Atlas Frogs S. Afr. Lesotho and Swaziland: 69)

Distribution

Southeastern Uganda eastward through southern Kenya and Tanzania, possibly to southern Somalia, south through Mozambique to the eastern part of the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal (Rep. South Africa), highveld areas of Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana, northern Namibia, and Angola; Reunion and Mauritius Islands (introduced); reported from northeastern Dem. Rep. Congo (see comment) and Rwanda; presumed to occur in Burundi but not so far recorded there. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Angola, Botswana, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Likely/Controversially Present: Burundi

Introduced: Mauritius, Reunion

Comment

In the Bufo regularis group of Tandy and Keith, 1972, in Blair (ed.), Evol. Genus Bufo: 159. Angola records in Poynton and Haacke, 1993, Ann. Transvaal Mus., 36: 1-16. See Poynton and Broadley, 1988, Ann. Natal Mus., 29: 452-453, Lambiris, 1990 "1989", Monogr. Mus. Reg. Sci. Nat. Torino, 10: 52, and Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 74-77, for accounts. See Tiervengandum and Bour, 1985, Atoll Res. Bull., 292: 49-60, for Mascarene introductions. Lanza, 1990, Biogeographia, 14: 409, suggested that this species might occur in southern Somalia. Lever, 2003, Naturalized Rept. Amph. World: 146, reported on introduced population on Mauritius. Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 76-78, provided an account for East Africa. Du Preez, Weldon, Cunningham, and Turner, 2004, in Minter et al. (eds.), Atlas Frogs S. Afr. Lesotho and Swaziland: 69-71, and Du Preez and Carruthers, 2009, Compl. Guide Frogs S. Afr.: 142-143, provided accounts for South Africa. Pickersgill, 2007, Frog Search: 525-532, provided an account and noted (pp. 532-535) a population from Cintsa Bay, Rep. South Africa, that he thought might be taxonomically distinctive. Bates and Haacke, 2003, Navors. Nas. Mus. Bloemfontein, 19: 120-121, discussed the species in Lesotho. Mercurio, 2011, Amph. Malawi: 116-121, provided an account for Malawi. Measey, Malonza, and Muchai, 2009, Amph. Taita Hills: 29-31, provided a brief account and photo for the Taita Hills, Kenya. Cole, 2009, Field Guide. Rept. Amph. Mauritius: 73, provided an account for Mauritius. Channing, Rödel, and Channing, 2012, Tadpoles of Africa: 130, reported on comparative tadpole morphology. Harper, Measey, Patrick, Menegon, and Vonesh, 2010, Field Guide Amph. E. Arc Mts. Tanzania and Kenya: 106–109, provided a brief account. Portik, Mulungu, Sequeira, and McEntee, 2013, Herpetol. Rev., 44: 395, provided records for Niassa and Zambézia provinces, Mozambique. Conradie, Bittencourt-Silva, Engelbrecht, Loader, Menegon, Nanvonamuquitxo, Scott, and Tolley, 2016, Zoosyst. Evol., Berlin, 92: 163–180, reported populations from Mount Namuli (Zambezia Province), Mozambique. Marques, Ceríaco, Blackburn, and Bauer, 2018, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 65 (Suppl. II): 72–73, provided a map for Angola and provided a brief account. Phaka, Netherlands, Kruger, and Du Preez, 2017, Bilingual Field Guide Frogs Zululand: 32, provided a photograph, Zululand regional map, and a brief account of life history and identification. See Bittencourt-Silva, 2019, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 13 (2: e181): 4, for comments on systematics, morphology, and ecology in western Zambia. Spawls, Wasonga, and Drewes, 2019, Amph. Kenya: 9, provided a range map for Kenya, photograph, and brief characterization. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 64–65, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Mali, Laudisoit, Yendema, Badjedjea, Mukobya, Ewango, Katuala, Akaibe, Bongo, Anio, Ngbolua, and Tungaluna, 2019, Asian J. Res. Zool., 2(4): 1–11, reported specimens so identified from the Lendu Plateau of northeastern Dem. Rep. Congo; this identification requires confirmation. Bittencourt-Silva, Bayliss, and Conradie, 2020, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 14 (2: e247): 198–271, reported the species from Mount Lico, Ile District, Zambezia Province, northeast-central Mozambique. Dehling and Sinsch, 2023, Diversity, 15 (512): 1–81, discussed the range, identification, natural history, advertisement call, and conservation status in Rwanda. Conradie, Keates, Verburgt, Baptista, and Harvey, 2023, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 17: 28–29, provided an account and dot map of the species in Angola.   

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