Hyperolius adspersus Peters, 1877

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Hyperoliidae > Subfamily: Hyperoliinae > Genus: Hyperolius > Species: Hyperolius adspersus

Hyperolius adspersus Peters, 1877, Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1877: 619. Holotype: ZMB 9176 according to Laurent, 1961, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 64: 92, and Bauer, Günther, and Klipfel, 1995, in Bauer et al. (eds.), Herpetol. Contr. W.C.H. Peters: 43. Type locality: "Chinchoxo (Westafrika)"; given as  "'Chinchoxo' Cabinda Province, Angola" by Marques, Ceríaco, Blackburn, and Bauer, 2018, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 65 (Suppl. II): 89. 

Rappia adspersa — Tornier, 1896, in Möbius (ed.), Deutsch Ost-Afr., 3: 136.

Rappia granulata Boulenger, 1901, Ann. Mus. R. Congo Belge, Tervuren, Zool., 2: 4. Holotype: MRAC 152, according to Laurent, 1943, Ann. Mus. R. Congo Belge, Tervuren, Zool., 4: 73. Type locality: "Pweto" Lake Mweru region, Dem. Rep. Congo. Synonymy with Hyperolius nasutus by Perret, 1976, Arq. Mus. Bocage, Ser. 2, 6: 26. Junior primary homonym of Rappia granulata Tornier, 1897. See Channing, Moyer, and Burger, 2002, Afr. Zool., 37: 97. Synonymy by with Hyperolius adspersus by by Channing, Hillers, Lötters, Rödel, Schick, Conradie, Rödder, Mercurio, Wagner, Dehling, Du Preez, Kielgast, and Burger, 2013, Zootaxa, 3620: 314. 

Rappia nobrei Ferreira, 1906, J. Sci. Math. Phys. Nat., Lisboa, Ser. 2, 7: 112. Syntypes: MUP (2 specimens) by original designation, these being under one number MUP 017292, according to Ceríaco, Blackburn, Marques, and Calado, 2014, Alytes, 31: 21. Type locality: "Cabiri", Angola. Synonymy by Ceríaco, Blackburn, Marques, and Calado, 2014, Alytes, 31: 21. 

Hyperolius granulatus—Noble, 1924, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 49: 251; Laurent, 1943, Ann. Mus. R. Congo Belge, Tervuren, Zool., 4: 74; Laurent, 1957, Explor. Parc Natl. Upemba, Miss. G.F. de Witte, 42: 29, 40; Broadley, 1971, Puku, 6: 121. 

Hyperolius nasutus adspersus —Laurent, 1961, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 64: 92. Subspecies distinctiveness rejected by Inger, 1968, Explor. Parc Natl. Garamba, Miss. H. de Saeger, 52: 137.

Hyperolius nobrei — Ceríaco, Blackburn, Marques, and Calado, 2014, Alytes, 31: 21, by implication. 

Common Names

Sprinkled Long Reed Frog (Channing, Hillers, Lötters, Rödel, Schick, Conradie, Rödder, Mercurio, Wagner, Dehling, Du Preez, Kielgast, and Burger, 2013, Zootaxa, 3620: 314). 

Sprinkled Reed Frog (Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 176).

Distribution

Southern Cameroon, east and south through Gabon and likely Equatorial Guinea to the lower Congo Basin of Dem. Rep. Congo and northern Angola.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Angola, Cameroon, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Congo, Republic of the, Gabon

Likely/Controversially Present: Equatorial Guinea

Comment

Removed from the synonymy of Hyperolius nasutus by Amiet, 2005, Rev. Suisse Zool., 112: 274, where it had been placed as a subspecies by Laurent, 1961, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 64: 92. In the Hyperolius nasutus group of Amiet, 2005, Rev. Suisse Zool., 112: 271–310, who discussed this and other species of this group in Cameroon. Schiøtz, 2006, Alytes, 24: 68, provided some comments on confusion with Hyperolius nasutus. Schiøtz, 2006, Alytes, 24: 46, provided a record for central Dem. Rep. Congo and discussed the difficulty in application of the name. Pauwels and Rödel, 2007, Herpetozoa, Wien, 19: 135–148, did not register the species as occurring in Gabon. See account for Cameroon by Amiet, 2012, Rainettes Cameroun: 288–295. See account by Channing, Hillers, Lötters, Rödel, Schick, Conradie, Rödder, Mercurio, Wagner, Dehling, Du Preez, Kielgast, and Burger, 2013, Zootaxa, 3620: 314–316, provided an account and redelimitation of the species.  Nagy, Chifundera, Collet, and Gvoždík, 2013, Herpetol. Notes, 6:  413–419, provided a record from Bas-Congo, southwestern Dem. Rep. Congo. See comment by Ceríaco, Blackburn, Marques, and Calado, 2014, Alytes, 31: 21, under Hyperolius nobrei, which may be synonymous. Jongsma, Tobi, Dixon-MacCallum, Bamba-Kaya, Yoga, Mbega, Mve Beh, Emrich, and Blackburn, 2017, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 11 (1: e144): 12, 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): 89–90, provided a map for Angola and a brief account noting the taxonomic uncertainty of this taxon within the Hyperolius nasutus group. Deichmann, Mulcahy, Vanthomme, Tobi, Wynn, Zimkus, and McDiarmid, 2017, PLoS One, 12 (11: e0187283): 18, noted possibly misidentified GenBank sequences or that additional lineages exist in the complex. Dewynter and Frétey, 2019, Cah. Fondation Biotope, 27: 23, summarized the literature for Gabon. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 176–177, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map, considerably restricted from some early concepts. Sánchez-Vialas, Calvo-Revuelta, Castroviejo-Fisher, and De la Riva, 2020, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 66: 146, expected the species to be found in Equatorial Guinea. Tillack, de Ruiter, and Rödel, 2021, Zoosyst. Evol., Berlin, 97: 417, discussed the collector and provenance of the holotype. Lobón-Rovira, Baptista, Clark, Jongsma, Conradie, Veríssimol, and Vaz Pinto, 2025, Afr. J. Herpetol., 74: 26, reported the species from Cabinda Province, Angola.     

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