Hyperolius cinnamomeoventris Barboza du Bocage, 1866

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

Hyperolius cinnamomeo-ventris Barboza du Bocage, 1866, J. Sci. Math. Phys. Nat., Lisboa, 1 (1): 75. Holotype: MBL by original indication; not located by Perret, 1976, Arq. Mus. Bocage, Ser. 2, 6: 24; destroyed in 1978 fire if still extant at that time. Type locality: "Duque de Bragança", Angola.

Hyperolius tristis Barboza du Bocage, 1866, J. Sci. Math. Phys. Nat., Lisboa, 1 (1): 76. Holotype: Not located in MBL by Perret, 1976, Arq. Mus. Bocage, Ser. 2, 6: 25. Destroyed in 1978 fire if extant at that time. Type locality: "Duque de Bragança", Angola. Synonymy by Laurent, 1943, Ann. Mus. R. Congo Belge, Tervuren, Zool., 4: 67, and Laurent, 1948 "1947", Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 11, 14: 288-294, and accepted explicitly by Perret, 1976, Arq. Mus. Bocage, Ser. 2, 6: 25.

Rappia tristisBoulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 121.

Rappia cinnamomeiventrisBarboza du Bocage, 1895, Herpetol. Angola Congo: 172. Incorrect subsequent spelling of species name.

Hyperolius cinnamomeoventrisNoble, 1924, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 49: 251, 325.

Hyperolius tristisNoble, 1924, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 49: 251, 330. Ahl, 1931, Das Tierreich, 55: 283.

Hyperolius cinnamomeoventris cinnamomeoventrisLaurent, 1943, Ann. Mus. R. Congo Belge, Tervuren, Zool., 4: 78; Laurent, 1961, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 64: 79.

Hyperolius ituriensis Laurent, 1943, Ann. Mus. R. Congo Belge, Tervuren, Zool., 4: 85. Holotype: MRAC 2175, by original designation. Type locality: "Djalasinda (Ituri)", Dem. Rep. Congo. Synonymy by Schiøtz, 1975, Treefrogs E. Afr.: 123.

Hyperolius wittei Laurent, 1943, Ann. Mus. R. Congo Belge, Tervuren, Zool., 4: 71. Holotype: MRAC 1252, by original designation. Type locality: "Klul (près de Mwanza) (distr. Tanganika [sic])", Dem. Rep. Congo. Synonymy by Laurent, 1957, Explor. Parc Natl. Upemba, Miss. G.F. de Witte, 42: 13.

Hyperolius cinnamomeoventris witteiLaurent, 1957, Explor. Parc Natl. Upemba, Miss. G.F. de Witte, 42: 13. 

Common Names

Cinnamon-bellied Reed Frog (Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 153; Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 157;  Spawls, Mazuch, and Mohammad, 2023, Handb. Amph. Rept. NE Afr.: 74).

Cinnamom Tree Frog (Lötters, Wagner, Bwong, Schick, Malonza, Muchai, Wasonga, and Veith, 2007, Fieldguide Amph. Rept. Kakamega Forest: 30).

Dimorphic Reed Frog (Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 157 [alternative name]).

Lambarene Reed Frog (Hyperolius fimbriolatus [no longer recognized]: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 67).

Braganca Reed Frog (Hyperolius cinnamomeoventrisFrank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 67).

Duque Reed Frog (Hyperolius tristis [no longer recognized]: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 68).

Distribution

Eastern Cameroon and northern Angola through Dem. Rep. Congo to Rwanda, Uganda, and southwesternmost Kenya; isolated records in southern and eastern Angola on the Zambia frontier and in northwestern Zambia require confirmation; expected in the Central African Republic and South Sudan; possibly in northern Tanzania.  

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Congo, Republic of the, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda

Likely/Controversially Present: South Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia

Comment

Two savanna and forest forms from Cameroon described by Perret, 1966, Zool. Jahrb., Jena, Abt. Syst., 93: 406–407. See accounts by Inger, 1968, Explor. Parc Natl. Garamba, Miss. H. de Saeger, 52: 155; Laurent, 1972, Explor. Parc Natl. Virunga, Ser. 2, 22: 80–82. Equatorial Guinea record by De la Riva, 1994, Rev. Esp. Herpetol., 8: 129. Schiøtz, 1999, Treefrogs Afr.: 129–131, provided a brief account and map. Frétey and Blanc, 2002 "2001", Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 126: 383, reported this species from Gabon. Schiøtz and Van Daele, 2003, Alytes, 20: 137–149, provided the Zambia record. Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 157–158, provided an account. Lasso, Rial, Castroviejo, and De la Riva, 2002, Graellsia, 58: 21-34, provided notes on ecological distribution in Equatorial Guinea (now presumably, at least in part, assigned to Hyperolius olivaceus). Schiøtz, 2006, Alytes, 24: 44, provided information for central Dem. Rep. Congo, and noted that the species name may cover a complex of species. Pickersgill, 2007, Frog Search: 367–368, provided systematic comments. Jackson and Blackburn, 2007, Salamandra, 43: 149–164, provided a record (as Hyperolius cf. cinnamomeoventris) for Nouabale-Ndoki National Park, Rep. Congo. Lötters, Wagner, Bwong, Schick, Malonza, Muchai, Wasonga, and Veith, 2007, Fieldguide Amph. Rept. Kakamega Forest: 30–31, provided an account for the western Kenya population. Roelke and Smith, 2010, Check List, 6: 525–531, commented on the dimorphic color pattern in adults. See account for Cameroon by Amiet, 2012, Rainettes Cameroun: 278–285.  Nagy, Chifundera, Collet, and Gvoždík, 2013, Herpetol. Notes, 6:  413–419, provided a record from Bas-Congo, southwestern Dem. Rep. Congo. See comments under Hyperolius thomensis and Hyperolius molleri. Bell, Parra, Badjedjea, Barej, Blackburn, Burger, Channing, Dehling, Greenbaum, Gvoždík, Kielgast, Kasumba, Lötters, McLaughlin, Nagy, Rödel, Portik, Stuart, VanDerWal, Zassi-Boulou, and Zamudio, 2017, Mol. Ecol., 26: 5224–5244, discussed molecular biogeography, phylogenetics, and systematics and removed Hyperolius olivaceus from synonymy. Marques, Ceríaco, Blackburn, and Bauer, 2018, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 65 (Suppl. II): 100–101, provided a map for Angola and a brief account. Bell, Parra, Badjedjea, Barej, Blackburn, Burger, Channing, Dehling, Greenbaum, Gvoždík, Kielgast, Kasumba, Lötters, McLaughlin, Nagy, Rödel, Portik, Stuart, VanDerWal, Zassi-Boulou, and Zamudio, 2017, Mol. Ecol., 26: 5223–5244, demonstrated that this nominal species is composed of at least three lineage-species. Ceríaco, Marques, and Bandeira, 2016, Anf. Rept. Parque Nac. Cangandala: 39, provided a brief account for Malanje Province, Angola. Deichmann, Mulcahy, Vanthomme, Tobi, Wynn, Zimkus, and McDiarmid, 2017, PLoS One, 12 (11: e0187283): 18, noted that Hyperolius veithi is nested within their samples of Hyperolius cinnamomeoventris suggesting either misidentified samples or that Hyperolius cinnamomeoventris is a species complex. Dewynter and Frétey, 2019, Cah. Fondation Biotope, 27: 24, summarized the literature for Gabon and noted that two of the three lineages delimited by Bell et al. (2007) reside in Gabon, one which they regard as Hyperolius cinnamomeoventris, while the other they assigned to Hyperolius olivaceus. Dehling and Sinsch, 2019, Zool. Anz., 280: 65–77, reported on the evolution of larval and adult morphospace in the Central African Albertine Rift, including this species which they considered to be in the Hyperolius cinnamomeoventris group. Spawls, Wasonga, and Drewes, 2019, Amph. Kenya: 20, provided a range map for Kenya, photograph, and brief characterization. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 196–197, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Mali, Banda, Chifundera, Badjedjea, Sebe, Lokasola, Ewango, Tungaluna, and Akaibe, 2019, Am. J. Zool., 2: 38–43, reported the species from the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, northeastern Dem. Rep. Congo. 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. Sánchez-Vialas, Calvo-Revuelta, Castroviejo-Fisher, and De la Riva, 2020, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 66: 162, seemingly excluded the species from Equatorial Guinea, treating previous records of this species as Hyperolius olivaceusErnst, Lautenschläger, Branquima, and Hölting, 2020, Zoosyst. Evol., 96: 253–254, noted the presence in Uigé Province, northwestern Angola. Kako-Wanzalire, Mongo, Ilonga, Mapoli, Mbumba, Neema, Tungaluna, Itoka, and Bogaert, 2021, Tropicultura, 39 (1: 1709): 1–19, briefly discussed habitat preference in north-central and northeastern Dem. Rep. Congo. Badjedjea, Masudi, Akaibe, and Gvoždík, 2022, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 16 (1: e301): 52, commented on a population (as Hyperolius cf. cinnamomeoventris) and the taxonomic confusion they present, from the Kokolopori Bonobo Nature Reserve, Tshuapa Province, Dem. Rep. Congo. Dehling and Sinsch, 2023, Diversity, 15 (512): 1–81, discussed the range, identification, natural history, advertisement call, and conservation status in Rwanda. Behangana, Byaruhanga, Magala, Katumba, Kagurusi, Dendi, and Luiselli, 2023, Wetlands, 43(88): 1–13, reported on presence in the wetlands of southwestern Uganda. Spawls, Mazuch, and Mohammad, 2023, Handb. Amph. Rept. NE Afr.: 74–75, provided an account addressing identification, natural history, conservation status, and range in Ethiopia and South Sudan, including a dot map. 

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