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

Phrynobatrachus francisci Boulenger, 1912

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Phrynobatrachidae > Genus: Phrynobatrachus > Species: Phrynobatrachus francisci

Phrynobatrachus francisci Boulenger, 1912, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 8, 10: 141. Holotype: BMNH 1947.2.30.29 (formerly 1911.3.21.10), according to Grandison, 1985, in Frost (ed.), Amph. Species World: 445. Type locality: "Zaria Province of Northern Nigeria".

Phrynobatrachus Monodi De Witte, 1930, Bull. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. Paris, Ser. 2, 2: 614. Holotype: MRAC (field number 956), by original designation. Type locality: "Sous la berge du Niger, entre Kokry et Kayo, en amont de Macina". Synonymy with Phrynobatrachus francisci Lamotte and Xavier, 1966, Bull. Inst. Fondam. Afr. Noire, Ser. A, 28: 1605–1619.

Common Names

Francisc's Puddle Frog (Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 288).

Warty River Frog (Auliya, Wagner, and Böhme, 2012, Bonn Zool. Bull., 61: 261).

Distribution

Senegal, southern Mauritania, southern Mali, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Ivory Coast, to Burkina Faso and Nigeria; expected in southern Niger, Sierra Leone.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo

Likely/Controversially Present: Niger, Sierra Leone

Comment

Discussed by Lamotte and Xavier, 1966, Bull. Inst. Fondam. Afr. Noire, Ser. A, 28: 343–361. Removed from the synonymy of Phrynobatrachus natalensis by Rödel, 2000, Herpetofauna W. Afr., 1: 165, where it had been placed with by Perret, 1966, Zool. Jahrb., Jena, Abt. Syst., 93: 363. Padial and De la Riva, 2004, Rev. Esp. Herpetol., 18: 96, suggested that this species will be found in southern Mauritania. Wanger, 2005, Salamandra, 41: 27–33, provided Gambia records. Greenbaum and Carr, 2005, Sci Pap. Nat. Hist. Mus. Univ. Kansas, 37: 10, provided a record from Upper Niger National Park, Guinea. Nago, Grell, Sinsin, and Rödel, 2006, Salamandra, 42: 93–108, provided a record for Benin. Schiøtz, 1963, Vidensk. Medd. Dansk Naturhist. Foren., 125: 43, provided records for Nigeria. Emms, Jambang, Bah, Mankali, Rödel, and Barnett, 2005, Herpetol. Bull., London, 94: 6–16, reported this species for Gambia. Frétey, 2008, Alytes, 25: 99–172, summarized the literature. In species group C of Zimkus, Rödel, and Hillers, 2010, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 55: 883–900. Auliya, Wagner, and Böhme, 2012, Bonn Zool. Bull., 61: 255–281, reported the species from the Bijagós Archipelago, Guinea-Bissau. Channing, Rödel, and Channing, 2012, Tadpoles of Africa: 276, provided information on comparative larval morphology. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 288–289, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Monasterio, Álvarez, Trape, and Rödel, 2016, Herpetol. Notes, 9: 1–6, provided a record from Dindefelo Natural Community Reserve, southeastern Senegal. Sampaio, Velo-Antón, Martínez-Freiría, Sánchez-Vialas, Pleguezuelos, Géniez, Crochet, and Brito, 2021, Conserv. Genetics, 22: 233–248, documented with molecular data that previous records of Phrynobatrachus from Mauritania actually apply to Phrynobatrachus francisci. Padial, Crochet, Géniez, and Brito, 2013, Basic & Appl. Herpetol., 27: 11–22, discussed systematics, distribution, and conservation status in Mauritania as Phrynobatrachus natalensis. See detailed account (as Phrynobatrachus natalensis) for Mauritania by Escoriza and Ben Hassine, 2019, Amph. N. Afr.: 258–263. In the Phrynobatrachus natalensis group of Goutte, Reyes-Velasco, and Boissinot, 2019, ZooKeys, 824: 53–70. Kanga, Kouamé, Zogbass, Gongomin, Agoh, Kouamé, Konan, Adepo-Gourène, Gourène, and Rödel, 2021, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 15: 71–107, commented on conservation status, identification, range, and habitat on the Ivory Coast side of Mont Nimba. Segniagbeto, Ohler, Rödel, Luiselli, and Dubois, 2024, Zoosystema, 46: 652, provided a brief account for Togo, discussing habitat, distribution, conservation status, and identification.

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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.