Paracassina Peracca, 1907

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Hyperoliidae > Subfamily: Kassininae > Genus: Paracassina
2 species

Rothschildia Mocquard, 1905, Bull. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. Paris, 11: 288. Type species: Rothschildia kounhiensis Mocquard, 1905, by monotypy. Junior homonym of Rothschildia Grote, 1897.

Paracassina Peracca, 1907, Boll. Mus. Zool. Anat. Comp. Univ. Torino, 22 (553): 3. Type species: Cassina obscura Boulenger, 1895, by monotypy. Synonymy with Rothschildia, by Parker, 1930, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1930: 5 (who noted that nominally Paracassina must be placed here, but the specimens involved were misidentified Kassina).

Tornierella Ahl, 1924, Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin, 11: 10. Type species: Tornierella pulchra Ahl, 1924 (= Rothschildia kounhiensis), by original designation. Synonymy with Kassina by Laurent and Combaz, 1950, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 43: 273. Synonymy by Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 38.

Mocquardia Ahl, 1931, Das Tierreich, 55: 460. Substitute name for Rothschildia Mocquard, 1905.

Common Names

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

Mountain Kassinas (Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 146).

Distribution

Central Ethiopia.

Comment

Considered a subgenus of Kassina on the basis of overall similarity by Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 37. Tornierella Ahl, 1924, was synonymized with Kassina Girard, 1853, by Parker, 1930, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1930: 5; Laurent and Combaz, 1950, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 43: 273, but revived by Drewes and Roth, 1981, Zool. J. Linn. Soc., 72: 267-287. Drewes, 1984, Occas. Pap. California Acad. Sci., 139: 39, recognized the species in this genus as Tornierella Ahl, 1924 and generically distinct from Kassina, i.e., more closely related to Kassinula. Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 38, considered Tornierella a synonym of Paracassina and the latter a subgenus of Kassina Girard, 1853. The nomenclatural novelty of Dubois (i.e., Paracassina for Tornierella) is followed here, but the synonymy of Paracassina with Kassina is not because Channing, 1989, S. Afr. J. Zool., 24: 126, demonstrated that Paracassina is the sister-taxon of Semnodactylus. See Schiøtz, 1999, Treefrogs Afr.: 313-316, for accounts and implied suggestion that Paracassina should be included within Kassina. See comment under Hyperoliidae. Channing, Rödel, and Channing, 2012, Tadpoles of Africa: 242–244, provided information on comparative larval morphology. Portik and Blackburn, 2016, Evolution, 70: 2017–2032, suggested that Paracassina is the sister taxon of Kassina + Phlyctimantis. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 146–147, provided brief accounts, photographs, and range maps for the species.

Contained taxa (2 sp.):

Paracassina kounhiensis (Mocquard, 1905)
Paracassina obscura (Boulenger, 1895)

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