Phrynobatrachus natalensis (Smith, 1849)

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

Stenorhynchus natalensis Smith, 1849, Illust. Zool. S. Afr., 3 (Appendix): 24. Holotype: BMNH 1947.2.5.13 (formerly 1862.3.14.20), according to Grandison, 1985, in Frost (ed.), Amph. Species World: 448. Type locality: "the country around Port Natal [=Durban]", KwaZulu-Natal, Rep. South Africa. Placed on the Official List of Specific Names in Zoology by Opinion 1921, Anonymous, 1999, Bull. Zool. Nomencl., 56: 96–100.

Phrynobatrachus natalensis Günther, 1862, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1862: 190. Holotype: BMNH. Type locality: "Port Natal", Rep. South Africa. Secondary homonym of Stenorhynchus natalensis Smith, 1849, according to (and synonymy by) Günther, 1865 "1864", Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1864: 481.

Dicroglossus angustirostris Cope, 1862, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 14: 341. Types: Not stated but presumed to be ANSP, not located. Type locality: ambiguously stated—"the present species extends the range of the genus so as to coincide with that of Tomopterna, Bibr."; presumed to be "Umvoti, Natal [= KwaZulu-Natal]", Rep. South Africa by Loveridge, 1957, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 117: 348. Synonymy by Cope, 1865, Nat. Hist. Rev., N.S., 5: 117; Peters, 1869, Reisen Ost-Afr. 1859–1865, 3: 17; Peters, 1882, Naturwiss. Reise Mossambique, Zool. 3: 156; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 112.

Leptoparius natalensisPeters, 1863, Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1863: 452.

Dicroglossus natalensisCope, 1865, Nat. Hist. Rev., N.S., 5: 117.

Arthroleptis natalensisPeters, 1875, Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1875: 210.

Arthroleptis natalensis var. irrorata Peters, 1875, Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1875: 210. Types: Not stated; presumably in ZMB, but not noted in recent type lists. Type locality: "Accra".

Arthroleptis bottegi Boulenger, 1895, Ann. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Genova, Ser. 2, 15: 16. Holotype: MSNG 28845, according to Capocaccia, 1957, Ann. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Genova, Ser. 3, 69: 216. Type locality: "Auata [River]", Bale Province, Ethiopia (05° 05′ N, 39° 08′ E). Rendered as "Auata (Alto Daua; Africa orientale)" by Capocaccia, 1957, Ann. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Genova, Ser. 3, 69: 216. Synonymy by Largen, 2001, Tropical Zool., 14: 289, although noting that topotypic Phrynobatrachus natalensis and Arthroleptis bottegi have vocal differences which may prove to have taxonomic significance.

Phrynobatrachus ranoides Boulenger, 1895 "1894", Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1894: 644. Holotype: BMNH 1947.2.30.1 (formerly numbered 1893.9.11.9), according to museum records. Type locality: "near Pietermaritzburg, Natal", South Africa. Synonymy by Noble, 1924, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 49: 189; Schmidt and Inger, 1959, Explor. Parc Natl. Upemba, Miss. G.F. de Witte, 56: 155; Poynton, 1964, Ann. Natal Mus., 17: 137.

Arthroleptis moorii Boulenger, 1898, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1898: 479. Holotype: BMNH 1947.2.30.52 (formerly 1898.7.22.26), according to Grandison, 1985, in Frost (ed.), Amph. Species World: 448. Type locality: "Kinyamkolo, Lake Tanganyika" (= Nyamkolo, southeastern corner of Lake Tanganyika), northeastern Zambia. Synonymy by Poynton and Broadley, 1985, Ann. Natal Mus., 27: 160–163.

Phrynobatrachus natalensis forma gracilis Andersson, 1904, Results Swedish Zool. Exped. Egypt, 1(10): 10. Syntypes: NHRM (4 specimens), by original designation. Type locality: "terminal Station Ghrab el Aish South of Kaka on the White Nile". Synonymy with Phrynobatrachus ranoides by De Witte, 1918, Rev. Zool. Afr., 6: 224. Synonymy by Noble, 1924, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 49: 189.

Phrynobatrachus maculatus FitzSimons, 1932, Ann. Transvaal Mus., 15: 40. Holotype: TMP (formerly Vernay-Lang Kalahari Expedition 1012), by original designation. Type locality: "Rain Forest, Victoria Falls", Zimbabwe. Schmidt and Inger, 1959, Explor. Parc Natl. Upemba, Miss. G.F. de Witte, 56: 155; Poynton, 1964, Ann. Natal Mus., 17: 137.

Phrynobatrachus natalensisDeckert, 1938, Sitzungsber. Ges. Naturforsch. Freunde Berlin, 1938: 157; Poynton, 1964, Ann. Natal Mus., 17: 137.

Phrynobatrachus natalensisDeckert, 1938, Sitzungsber. Ges. Naturforsch. Freunde Berlin, 1938: 132.

Phrynobatrachus (Phrynobatrachus) natalensisLaurent, 1941, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 34: 200.

Phrynobatrachus (Phrynobatrachus) ranoidesLaurent, 1941, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 34: 200.

Phrynobatrachus (Pararthroleptis) bottegiLaurent, 1941, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 34: 206.

Phrynobatrachus mooriLaurent, 1941, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 34: 207.

Arthroleptis-Phrynobatrachus natalensisScortecci, 1943, in Zavattari (ed.), Miss. Biol. Sagan–Omo, 7(Zool. 1): 331.

Arthroleptis-Phrynobatrachus zavattarii Scortecci, 1943, in Zavattari (ed.), Miss. Biol. Sagan–Omo, 7(Zool. 1): 327. Syntypes: MSNM (4 specimens) according to Conci, 1967, Atti Soc. Ital. Sci. Nat. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Milano, 106: 94. Now number MSNM Am 606A–B, 1329, and 1446 according to Blackburn and Scali, 2014, Herpetol. Monogr., 28: 32, who discussed the material. Type locality: "Caschei" (=Ciacche), Gemu-Gofa Province, Ethiopia, 05° 00′ N, 37° 33′ E, ca. 1500 m. This locality considered unclear as discussed by Blackburn and Scali, 2014, Herpetol. Monogr., 28: 31–32. Synonymy by Largen, 2001, Tropical Zool., 14: 290.

Arthroleptis-Phrynobatrachus sciangallarum Scortecci, 1943, in Zavattari (ed.), Miss. Biol. Sagan–Omo, 7(Zool. 1): 329. Holotype: MSNM Am 229 according to Blackburn and Scali, 2014, Herpetol. Monogr., 28: 31, who discussed the material. Type locality: "Murlè", Gemu-Gofa Province, Ethiopia, 05° 10′ N, 36° 13′ E, 400 m.

Phrynobatrachus duckeri Loveridge, 1953, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 110: 377. Holotype: MCZ 27581. Type locality: "from a freshly formed pool in sandy soil in a corner of one of the Cotton Growers Experimental Station dams at Chitala River, Nyasaland [Malawi]". Synonymy by Poynton, 1964, Senckenb. Biol., 45: 195.

Arthroleptis sciangallarumGorham, 1974, Checklist World Amph.: 129.

Phrynobatrachus sciangallarumFrank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 104.

Phrynobatrachus zavattariiFrank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 104.

Phrynobatrachus bottegiFrank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 104.

English Names

Smith's Frog (Hewitt, 1937, Guide Vert. Fauna E. Cape Province, Rept. Amph. Fishes: 101; Rose, 1950, Rep. Amph. S. Afr.: 74; Cochran, 1961, Living Amph. World: 162).

Puddle Frog (Rose, 1962, Rep. Amph. S. Afr., Ed. 2: 75; Pienaar, 1963, Koedoe, 6: 80; Wager, 1965, Frogs S. Afr.: 162).

Snoring Puddle Frog (Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 164).

Natal Frog (Cochran, 1961, Living Amph. World: 165; Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 164).

Natal Puddle Frog (Broadley, 1973, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 10: 23; Passmore and Carruthers, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 19: 5; Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 164; Lambiris, 1990 "1989", Monogr. Mus. Reg. Sci. Nat. Torino, 10: 122; Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 307; Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 286).

Common Toad-frog (Van Dijk, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 17: 15).

Common Puddle Frog (Jacobsen, 2009, Afr. Herp News, 47: 5).

Toad Frog (Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 164).

Natal River Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 104).

Natal Puddle Frog (Largen and Spawls, 2010, Amph. Rept. Ethiopia Eritrea: 203).

Auata River Frog (Phrynobatrachus bottegi [no longer recognized]: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 103).

Scortecci's River Frog (Phrynobatrachus zavattari [no longer recognized]: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 104).

Murle River Frog (Phrynobatrachus sciangallarum [no longer recognized]: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 104).

Distribution

Savanna areas of Africa, south of the Sahara from as far north as Gambia, Sudan, Kenya and Ethiopia and Eritrea to northern Namibia, Mozambique, western Lesotho and Rep. South Africa; expected in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania, and Somalia. See comment. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Congo, Republic of the, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Likely/Controversially Present: Burkina Faso, Chad

Comment

See accounts by Guibé and Lamotte, 1963, Mem. Inst. Franç. Afr. Noire, 66: 601–627; Schmidt and Inger, 1959, Explor. Parc Natl. Upemba, Miss. G.F. de Witte, 56: 155–159; Poynton, 1964, Ann. Natal Mus., 17: 137–140; Inger, 1968, Explor. Parc Natl. Garamba, Miss. H. de Saeger, 52: 91; and Lamotte and Xavier, 1966, Bull. Inst. Fondam. Afr. Noire, Ser. A, 28: 343–361. Rödel, 2000, Herpetofauna W. Afr., 1: 170–176, provided an account and noted that the species is very likely a composite, and that at least Phrynobatrachus duckeri and Phrynobatrachus moori are candidates for species status. Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 307–308, Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 286–297, and Channing, 2004, in Minter et al. (eds.), Atlas Frogs S. Afr. Lesotho and Swaziland: 253–254, provided accounts. Lanza, 1990, Biogeographia, 14: 410, suggested that this species would be found in Somalia. See brief comments by Rödel, Bangoura, and Böhme, 2004, Herpetozoa, Wien, 17: 1085, variation in Guinea. Padial and De la Riva, 2004, Rev. Esp. Herpetol., 18: 94, provided a record from Mauritania. Emms, Jambang, Bah, Mankali, Rödel, and Barnett, 2005, Herpetol. Bull., London, 94: 6–16, provided records for Gambia. Pickersgill, 2007, Frog Search: 161–165, and Lötters, Wagner, Bwong, Schick, Malonza, Muchai, Wasonga, and Veith, 2007, Fieldguide Amph. Rept. Kakamega Forest: 16–17, provided accounts. Frétey, 2008, Alytes, 25: 99–172, summarized the literature. Jacobsen, 2009, Afr. Herp News, 47: 2–20, reported this species from east-north-central Central African Republic. Bates and Haacke, 2003, Navors. Nas. Mus. Bloemfontein, 19: 140, provided the Lesotho records. In species group C of Zimkus, Rödel, and Hillers, 2010, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 55: 883–900, whose analysis suggested that this nominal taxon is a species complex. Zimkus and Schick, 2010, Syst. Biodiversity, 8: 39–47, further discussed the nature of nominal Phrynobatrachus natalensis as a species complex. See account, photograph, and map for Ethiopia and Eritrea by Largen and Spawls, 2010, Amph. Rept. Ethiopia Eritrea: 203–206. Mercurio, 2011, Amph. Malawi: 225–229, provided an account for Malawi. Channing, Rödel, and Channing, 2012, Tadpoles of Africa: 280, provided information on comparative larval morphology. Harper, Measey, Patrick, Menegon, and Vonesh, 2010, Field Guide Amph. E. Arc Mts. Tanzania and Kenya: 240–241, provided a brief account and photograph. Ohler and Frétey, 2014, J. E. Afr. Nat. Hist., 103: 91, provided a brief discussion of a collection from northern Mozambique. Conradie, Bittencourt-Silva, Engelbrecht, Loader, Menegon, Nanvonamuquitxo, Scott, and Tolley, 2016, Zoosyst. Evol., Berlin, 92: 163–180, reported a populations from Mount M'pàluwé, Nampula Province, Mozambique. Ceríaco, Marques, and Bandeira, 2016, Anf. Rept. Parque Nac. Cangandala: 41, provided a brief account for Malanje Province, Angola. Marques, Ceríaco, Blackburn, and Bauer, 2018, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 65 (Suppl. II): 147–148, provided a map for Angola and brief discussion of the literature. Phaka, Netherlands, Kruger, and Du Preez, 2017, Bilingual Field Guide Frogs Zululand: 52, provided a photograph, Zululand regional map, and a brief account of life history and identification. See Bittencourt-Silva, 2019, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 13 (2: e181): 9, commented on systematics and ecology in western Zambia, and provided an mtDNA ML tree for all of Africa that suggests that this is a complex of species. Spawls, Wasonga, and Drewes, 2019, Amph. Kenya: 46, provided a photograph, range map, and brief characterization. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 286–287, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. In the Phrynobatrachus natalensis group of Goutte, Reyes-Velasco, and Boissinot, 2019, ZooKeys, 824: 53–70. Baptista, António, and Branch, 2019, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 13 (e203): 96–130, reported on specimens from Bicuar National Park, southwestern Angola. 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. Ernst, Lautenschläger, Branquima, and Hölting, 2020, Zoosyst. Evol., 96: 254–255, noted the presence of Phrynobatrachus cf. natalensis in Uigé Province, northwestern Angola. 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 natalensis from Mauritania actually apply to Phrynobatrachus francisci. 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, and who also noted this name to cover a number of unnamed cryptic species. Lobón-Rovira, Vaz Pinto, Becker, Tolley, Measey, Bennet, Boon, de Sá, and Conradie, 2022, Check List, 18: 289–321, reported the species from Iona National Park, southwestern Angola, and characterized its habitat. Dehling and Sinsch, 2023, Diversity, 15 (512): 1–81, discussed the range, identification (noting that two species in the complex occur in Rwanda), natural history, advertisement call, and conservation status in Rwanda. Conradie, Keates, Verburgt, Baptista, and Harvey, 2023, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 17: 41, provided an account and dot map of the species in Angola. Behangana, Byaruhanga, Magala, Katumba, Kagurusi, Dendi, and Luiselli, 2023, Wetlands, 43(88): 1–13, reported on presence in the wetlands of southwestern Uganda.

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