Ptychadena aequiplicata (Werner, 1898)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Ptychadenidae > Genus: Ptychadena > Species: Ptychadena aequiplicata

Rana mascareniensis var. aequiplicata Werner, 1898, Verh. Zool. Bot. Ges. Wien, 48: 192. Syntypes: ZMB and including NHMW 9784, according to Häupl and Tiedemann, 1978, Kat. Wiss. Samml. Naturhist. Mus. Wien, 2: 27, and Häupl and Tiedemann, 1978, Kat. Wiss. Samml. Naturhist. Mus. Wien, 2: 28. Type locality: "Kamerun (Victoria [now Limbé] und Buca [= Buea]", Cameroon.

Rana aequiplicata — Boulenger, 1900, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1900: 437.

Rana (Ptychadena) aequiplicata — De Witte, 1921, Rev. Zool. Afr., 9: 5; Parker, 1936, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1936: 139; Guibé and Lamotte, 1954, Bull. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. Paris, Ser. 2, 26: 318; Dubois, 1981, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Suppl., 15: 233; by implication

Ptychadena aequiplicata — Laurent, 1956, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 53: 232; Guibé and Lamotte, 1957, Bull. Inst. Franç. Afr. Noire, Ser. A, 19: 942; Lamotte, 1967, Bull. Inst. Fondam. Afr. Noire, Ser. A, 29: 237; Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 56; by implication.

Ptychadena (Ptychadena) aequiplicata — Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 316.

Common Names

Victoria Grassland Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 105).

Limbé Grass Frog ( Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 332).

Distribution

Sierra Leone and Guinea, eastern Liberia, and southern Ivory Coast in rainforest south and east to western Central African Republic and extreme western Dem. Rep. Congo, in rainforest; Equatorial Guinea including Bioko I.; possibly to the Cabinda Enclave, Angola and Togo (see comments).

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Congo, Republic of the, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone

Likely/Controversially Present: Angola, Togo

Comment

See Perret, 1966, Zool. Jahrb., Jena, Abt. Syst., 93: 343-344; Amiet, 1974, Ann. Fac. Sci. Cameroun, 18: 110. Removed from the synonymy of Ptychadena longirostris, by Parker, 1936, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1936: 139, where it had been placed by Ahl, 1924, Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin, 11: 1. Loveridge, 1929, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 151: 102, and Andersson, 1937, Ark. Zool., 29(16): 1-28, had suggested that Rana aequiplicata was a race of Rana oxyrhynchus. De la Riva, 1994, Rev. Esp. Herpetol., 8: 134, provided a record for Equatorial Guinea. Frétey and Blanc, 2002 "2001", Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 126: 385, reported this species from Gabon. Lasso, Rial, Castroviejo, and De la Riva, 2002, Graellsia, 58: 21-34, provided notes on ecological distribution in Equatorial Guinea. Schiøtz, 1963, Vidensk. Medd. Dansk Naturhist. Foren., 125: 23, provided records for Nigeria. Baptista, Conradie, Vaz Pinto, and Branch, 2019, In Huntley, Russo, Lages, and Ferrand (eds.), Biodiversity in Angola: 255, noted specimens in the AMNH within 50 km of the Cabinda, Angola, border although the identification of these specimens requires confirmation. Nagy, Chifundera, Collet, and Gvoždík, 2013, Herpetol. Notes, 6: 413–419, provided a record (as Ptychadena cf. aequiplicata) from Bas-Congo, southwestern Dem. Rep. Congo. Dewynter, Chirio, Melki, Cordier, and Frétey, 2017, Cah. Fondation Biotope, 11: 24, provided a brief account and photographs of this species from the Mount Koumouna-Bouali area of Gabon. Larson and Zimkus, 2018, Herpetol. Conserv. Biol., 13: 248, noted that preliminary molecular work detected several cryptic species under this name. Dewynter and Frétey, 2019, Cah. Fondation Biotope, 27: 37, summarized the literature for Gabon, provided photographs (p. 64), and commented on the taxonomic disarray in this complex. Rödel and Glos, 2019, Zoosyst. Evol., 95: 26, reported Ptychadena aff. aequiplicata from the Krahn-Bassa Proposed Protected Area in southeastern Liberia and the Foya Proposed Protected Area in western Liberia, and commented on habitat preference and suggested that nominal Ptychadena aequiplicata is a species complex. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 332–333, provided a brief account (noting this taxon to be a complex of several cryptic species), photograph, and range map. Mali, Laudisoit, Yendema, Badjedjea, Mukobya, Ewango, Katuala, Akaibe, Bongo, Anio, Ngbolua, and Tungaluna, 2019, Asian J. Res. Zool., 2(4): 1–11, reported specimens (as Ptychadena cf. aequiplicata) from the Lendu Plateau of northeastern Dem. Rep. Congo; this identification requires confirmation. See brief account, range map, and photographs for Equatorial Guinea in Sánchez-Vialas, Calvo-Revuelta, Castroviejo-Fisher, and De la Riva, 2020, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 66: 137–230. Kako-Wanzalire, Mongo, Ilonga, Mapoli, Mbumba, Neema, Tungaluna, Itoka, and Bogaert, 2021, Tropicultura, 39 (1: 1709): 1–19, briefly discussed habitat preference in north-central  Dem. Rep. Congo, although this identification is deeply suspect. Badjedjea, Masudi, Akaibe, and Gvoždík, 2022, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 16 (1: e301): 59–61, commented on a population from the Kokolopori Bonobo Nature Reserve, Tshuapa Province, Dem. Rep. Congo. Segniagbeto, Ohler, Rödel, Luiselli, and Dubois, 2024, Zoosystema, 46: 656, discussed the possibility of populations (as Ptychadena aff. aequiplicata) in Togo and suggested that the name covers a species complex.

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