Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
Single word	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Hyperolius phantasticus (Boulenger, 1899)

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

Rappia phantastica Boulenger, 1899, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 7, 3: 274. Holotype: BMNH 1947.2.9.20 (formerly 1899.4.27.8) y museum records. Type locality: "Benito River, French Congo", Equatorial Guinea.

Hyperolius phantasticus — Noble, 1924, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 49: 252, 265, 327; Ahl, 1931, Das Tierreich, 55: 393.

Hyperolius nigropalmatus Ahl, 1931, Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin, 17: 104 Holotype: ZMB unnumbered, according to the original publication, this being ZMB 85764 according to Tillack, de Ruiter, and Rödel, 2021, Zoosyst. Evol., Berlin, 97: 429. Type locality: "Lolodorf, [Océan Division, South Province,] Kamerun". Synonymy by Perret, 1966, Zool. Jahrb., Jena, Abt. Syst., 93: 408. The description in Ahl, 1931, Das Tierreich, 55: 378, appeared after the original according to Tillack, de Ruiter, and Rödel, 2021, Zoosyst. Evol., Berlin, 97: 407–450.

Hyperolius chabanaudi Ahl, 1931, Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin, 17: 125. Holotype: ZMB unnumbered, according to the original publication; ZMB 18228, according to Laurent, 1961, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 64: 73. Type locality: "Beniló [= Benito], Französischer Kongo [=Gabon]". The description in Ahl, 1931, Das Tierreich, 55: 407, appeared subsequently to the original according to Tillack, de Ruiter, and Rödel, 2021, Zoosyst. Evol., Berlin, 97: 407–450. Considered a likely synonym of Hyperolius phantasticus by Laurent, 1985, in Frost (ed.), Amph. Species World: 215; synonymy confirmed by Lötters, Gossmann, Obame, and Böhme, 2001, Herpetofauna, Weinstadt, 23: 30.

Hyperolius boulengeri Laurent, 1943, Ann. Mus. R. Congo Belge, Tervuren, Zool., 4: 134. Holotype: MRAC 37104, by original designation. Type locality: "Flandria (Tshuapa)", Dem. Rep. Congo. Synonymy by Laurent, 1961, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 64: 73.

Hyperolius phantasticus boulengeri — Badjedjea, Masudi, Akaibe, and Gvoždík, 2022, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 16 (1: e301): 56.

Common Names

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

Chabanaud's Reed Frog (Hyperolius chabanaudi [no longer recognized]: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 66).

Distribution

Forests of Gabon and southwestern Cameroon to southwestern Central Africa Republic, northeastern Dem. Rep. Congo, and south through Gabon with an isolated record in southwestern Rep. Congo; Río Muni in Equatorial Guinea; expected in Cabinda enclave of Angola.

Geographic Occurrence

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

Likely/Controversially Present: Angola

Comment

See comments by Köhler, Scheelke, Schick, Veith, and Lötters, 2005, Afr. Zool., 40: 136–137, who described the advertisement call. Schiøtz, 2006, Alytes, 24: 51–54, provided comments on identification and variation. Schiøtz, 1999, Treefrogs Afr.: 149–151, provided a brief account and map. See account for Cameroon by Amiet, 2012, Rainettes Cameroun: 357–361. Jongsma, Tobi, Dixon-MacCallum, Bamba-Kaya, Yoga, Mbega, Mve Beh, Emrich, and Blackburn, 2017, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 11 (1: e144): 14, provided a record for southeastern Gabon and briefly discussed habitat and range. Dewynter and Frétey, 2019, Cah. Fondation Biotope, 27: 27, summarized the literature for Gabon. Dehling and Sinsch, 2019, Zool. Anz., 280: 65–77, placed this in their Hyperolius pardalis group. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 188–189, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 188–189, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. 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. Tillack, de Ruiter, and Rödel, 2021, Zoosyst. Evol., Berlin, 97: 407–450, briefly discussed the types and their collector's itinerary of Hyperolius chabanaudi and Hyperolius nigropalmatus. 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.

External links:

Please note: these links will take you to external websites not affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History. We are not responsible for their content.

For access to general information see Wikipedia
For additional sources of general information from other websites search Google
For access to relevant technical literature search Google Scholar
For images search CalPhoto Images and Google Images
To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
For information on distribution, habitat, and conservation see the Map of Life
For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist
For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.