Hylambates Duméril, 1853

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Hyperoliidae > Subfamily: Kassininae > Genus: Hylambates
5 species

Hylambates Duméril, 1853, Ann. Sci. Nat., Paris, Ser. 3, 19: 162. Type species: Hylambates maculatus Duméril, 1853, by monotypy. See comment. 

Phlyctimantis Laurent and Combaz, 1950, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 43: 274. Type species: Hylambates leonardi Boulenger, 1906 "1905", by original designation. Synonymy by Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 223. (Unfortunately I could not find the misrepresentation of what these authors claimed was in ASW, but they are correct on this point–DRF). 

Phlyctimantis — Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 38. Treatment as a subgenus of Kassina.

English Names

African Striped Frogs (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 69).

Wot-wots (Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 212).

Distribution

Southern Tanzania; Liberia east to Ivory Coast and in eastern Nigeria, western Cameroon, and Bioko (Equatorial Guinea), and rainforest in Dem. Rep. Congo; absent in apparently suitable habitats in Togo, Benin, and western Nigeria.

Geographics occurrence

Natural resident: Cameroon, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Congo, Republic of the, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe

Comment

Schiøtz, 1967, Spolia Zool. Mus. Haun., 25ezembed: 96, doubted the distinctiveness of this genus from Kassina, but Drewes, 1984, Occas. Pap. California Acad. Sci., 139: 1–70, treated it as valid and the sister-taxon of Kassina + Kassinula + Paracassina (as Tornierella). Phlyctimantis was regarded as a subgenus of Kassina by Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 38. Channing, 1989, S. Afr. J. Zool., 24: 116–131, discussed the phylogenetic position of this taxon on the basis of a parsimony analysis (Phlyctimantis (Kassina (Paracassina + Semnodactylus))); see Hyperoliidae account for more information on phylogenetics. See Schiøtz, 1999, Treefrogs Afr.: 316–323, for accounts of the species. Laurent, 1976, Ann. Mus. R. Afr. Cent., Tervuren, Ser. Octavo, Sci. Zool., 213: 18–30, provided accounts for the species in Congo. Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 212–214, provided a key and accounts for the East African species. Rödel, Gil, Agyei, Leaché, Diaz, Fujita, and Ernst, 2005, Salamandra, 41: 107–127. Channing, Rödel, and Channing, 2012, Tadpoles of Africa: 245–248, provided information on comparative larval morphology. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 132–135, provided brief accounts, photographs, and range maps for the species. Hylambates had been placed in the synonymy of Kassina by Laurent and Combaz, 1950, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 43: 271, but recognized as distinct by Laurent and Combaz, 1950, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 43: 274. Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 223, noted that Hylambates has priority over Phlyctimantis. 

Contained taxa (5 sp.):

Hylambates boulengeri (Perret, 1986)
Hylambates keithae (Schiøtz, 1975)
Hylambates leonardi Boulenger, 1906
Hylambates maculatus Duméril, 1853
Hylambates verrucosus Boulenger, 1912

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