Hyperolius ocellatus Günther, 1858

Common Names

Ocellated Reed Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 67).

Golden-eyed Reed Frog (Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 168; Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 172).

Large-spotted Reed Frog (Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 192).    

Distribution

Forests of southeastern Nigeria to Dem. Rep. Congo, Cabinda (Angola; see comment), Kivu and Tshuaba provinces (Dem. Rep. Congo) and southwestern Uganda; Bioko (Equatorial Guinea).

Geographic Occurrence

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

Comment

See Perret, 1975, Ann. Fac. Sci. Cameroun, 20: 23–31, for discussion of the two subspecies: Hyperolius ocellatus ocellatus and Hyperolius ocellatus prupurescens. See comment under Hyperolius lucani. Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 168–169, provided an account. De la Riva, 1994, Rev. Esp. Herpetol., 8: 130, provided a record for Equatorial Guinea. Frétey and Blanc, 2002 "2001", Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 126: 383, reported this species from Gabon. Schiøtz, 1999, Treefrogs Afr.: 140–141, provided a brief account and map. Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 172–173, provided an account. Lasso, Rial, Castroviejo, and De la Riva, 2002, Graellsia, 58: 21–34, provided notes on ecological distribution in Equatorial Guinea. Schiøtz, 2006, Alytes, 24: 48, provided comments on the species from central Dem. Rep. Congo. See account for Cameroon by Amiet, 2012, Rainettes Cameroun: 313–321. Channing, Rödel, and Channing, 2012, Tadpoles of Africa: 217–218, reported on comparative tadpole morphology. 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. Jongsma, Tobi, Dixon-MacCallum, Bamba-Kaya, Yoga, Mbega, Mve Beh, Emrich, and Blackburn, 2017, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 11 (1: e144): 12, provided records for southeastern Gabon and briefly discussed habitat and range. Marques, Ceríaco, Blackburn, and Bauer, 2018, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 65 (Suppl. II): 108–109, provided a map for Angola and a brief account. Baptista, Conradie, Vaz Pinto, and Branch, 2019, In Huntley, Russo, Lages, and Ferrand (eds.), Biodiversity in Angola: 253–255, noted that with the restriction of the type locality of Hyperolius ocellatus to Fernando Po, it is unlikely that the mainland populations (at least those from Angola) assigned to this name are actually Hyperolius ocellatus. Dewynter, Frétey, Jongsma, Bamba-Kaya, and Pauwels, 2018, Cah. Fondation Biotope, 18: 27, provided a brief account and photographs from the Monts Birougou area of Gabon.Dewynter and Frétey, 2019, Cah. Fondation Biotope, 27: 26, summarized the literature for Gabon and provided photographs (p. 57). Dehling and Sinsch, 2019, Zool. Anz., 280: 65–77, placed this species, along with Hyperolius mosaicus, in their "Central Africa Forest Species" group, close to the Hyperolius cinnamomeoventris group. 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. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 192–193, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. See Hyperolius lucani, which is a likely synonym. 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. See brief account, range map, and photographs for Equatorial Guinea in Sánchez-Vialas, Calvo-Revuelta, Castroviejo-Fisher, and De la Riva, 2020, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 66: 137–230. Badjedjea, Masudi, Akaibe, and Gvoždík, 2022, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 16 (1: e301): 56, commented on a population from the Kokolopori Bonobo Nature Reserve, Tshuapa Province, Dem. Rep. Congo, and the taxonomic questions these specimens raise. Dehling and Sinsch, 2023, Diversity, 15 (512): 65, specifically excluded this species from the fauna of Rwanda. 

    

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