Afrixalus dorsalis (Peters, 1875)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Hyperoliidae > Subfamily: Hyperoliinae > Genus: Afrixalus > Species: Afrixalus dorsalis

Hyperolius dorsalis Peters, 1875, Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1875: 206. Syntypes: several s pecimens, including ZMB 4488 according to Bauer, Günther, and Klipfel, 1995, in Bauer et al. (eds.), Herpetol. Contr. W.C.H. Peters: 44; including ZMB 4488 (Boutry) and 8850 (Victoria) according to Tillack, de Ruiter, and Rödel, 2021, Zoosyst. Evol., Berlin, 97: 421, although they noted that several are untraced. Type localities: "Boutry [Butre (Bootry), Ahanta West District, Western Region, Ghana]" and "Victoria in einem Wassertümpel", “Victoria” [Limbe, Fako Division, Southwest Region, Cameroon]; invalidly restricted to "Boutry" by Mertens, 1938, Abh. Senckenb. Naturforsch. Ges., 442: 24, without lectotype designation.

Megalixalus dorsalis — Parker, 1931 "1930", Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1930: 900; Ahl, 1931, Das Tierreich, 55: 439.

Afrixalus dorsalis — Guibé, 1948, Bull. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. Paris, Ser. 2, 20: 500, by implication.

Afrixalus dorsalis dorsalis — Laurent, 1951, Ann. Soc. R. Zool. Belg., 82: 24.

Afrixalus dorsalis regularis Laurent, 1951, Ann. Soc. R. Zool. Belg., 82: 25. Holotype: MNHNP 96.575, by original designation. Type locality: "Lambarené s/Ogoué, Gabon". Distinctiveness from Afrixalus dorsalis dorsalis rejected by Rödel, 2000, Herpetofauna W. Afr., 1: 246.

Afrixalus dorsalis laciniosus Perret, 1960, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 61: 369. Holotype: MHNG 1035.39 according to Schätti, Perret, and Mariaux, 2002, Cat. Comm. Types Amph. Rept. Mus. Hist. Nat. Geneve, Vers. 4.0 (Jan. 2002): 4. Type locality: "Douala, Cameroun".

English Names

Cameroon Banana Frog (Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 70).

Brown Banana Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 65).

Striped Spiny Reed Frog (Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 136).

Distribution

Brushland habitats in southern Guinea and eastern Sierra Leone through coastal Cameroon to extreme northern coastal Angola; expected in Togo.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Congo, Republic of the, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone

Likely/Controversially Present: Togo

Comment

See accounts by Inger, 1968, Explor. Parc Natl. Garamba, Miss. H. de Saeger, 52: 131, Schiøtz, 1999, Treefrogs Afr.: 47–48, and Amiet, 2009, Rev. Suisse Zool., 116: 65–68. See comment under Afrixalus fulvovittautus. Rödel, 2000, Herpetofauna W. Afr., 1: 242–246, provided an account and discussed the three subspecies. See also account by Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 136–137. Frétey and Blanc, 2002 "2001", Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 126: 382, reported this species from Gabon. Schiøtz, 1963, Vidensk. Medd. Dansk Naturhist. Foren., 125: 51–54, provided records for Nigeria and discussed the taxon. Köhler, Scheelke, Schick, Veith, and Lötters, 2005, Afr. Zool., 40: 127-142, described the advertisement call. Rödel, Brede, Schiefenhövel, Penner, Sinsin, and Nago, 2007, Salamandra, 43: 231–238, reported this species from the Lokoli Forest of southern Benin. Segniagbeto, Bowessidjaou, Dubois, and Ohler, 2007, Alytes, 24: 76, commented on the presence of this species in Togo. Rödel, Brede, Schiefenhövel, Penner, Sinsin, and Nago, 2007, Salamandra, 43: 238, provided a record from Lama Forest, southern Benin. See account by Amiet, 2009, Rev. Suisse Zool., 116: 53–92. See account for Cameroon by Amiet, 2012, Rainettes Cameroun: 69-75. Channing, Rödel, and Channing, 2012, Tadpoles of Africa: 187, reported on comparative tadpole morphology. Jongsma, Tobi, Dixon-MacCallum, Bamba-Kaya, Yoga, Mbega, Mve Beh, Emrich, and Blackburn, 2017, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 11 (1: e144): 10, provided a record for southeastern Gabon and briefly discussed habitat and range. Marques, Ceríaco, Blackburn, and Bauer, 2018, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 65 (Suppl. II): 85, provided a map for Angola and a brief account, noting the so-far unaddressed taxonomic uncertainties surrounding the nominal species. Dewynter and Frétey, 2019, Cah. Fondation Biotope, 27: 21, summarized the literature for Gabon and provided photographs (p. 55). Rödel and Glos, 2019, Zoosyst. Evol., 95: 21, reported this species from the Foya Proposed Protected Area in western Liberia. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 152–153, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Portik, Bell, Blackburn, Bauer, Barratt, Branch, Burger, Channing, Colston, Conradie, Dehling, Drewes, Ernst, Greenbaum, Gvoždík, Harvey, Hillers, Hirschfeld, Jongsma, Kielgast, Kouete, Lawson, Leaché, Loader, Lötters, van der Meijden, Menegon, Müller, Nagy, Ofori-Boateng, Ohler, Papenfuss, Rößler, Sinsch, Rödel, Veith, Vindum, Zassi-Boulou, and McGuire, 2019, Syst. Biol., 68: 859–875, implied that this nominal species is a complex. See brief account, range map for Equatorial Guinea in Sánchez-Vialas, Calvo-Revuelta, Castroviejo-Fisher, and De la Riva, 2020, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 66: 137–230. Kanga, Kouamé, Zogbass, Gongomin, Agoh, Kouamé, Konan, Adepo-Gourène, Gourène, and Rödel, 2021, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 15: 71–107, commented on conservation status, identification, range, and habitat on the Ivory Coast side of Mont Nimba. Tillack, de Ruiter, and Rödel, 2021, Zoosyst. Evol., Berlin, 97: 421, briefly discussed the syntypes and their collection locality. Nečas, Kielgast, Nagy, Chifundera, and Gvoždík, 2022, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 174 (107514): 1–11, provided a molecular tree that suggests that this nominal species is composed of at least 3 species. 

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