Ptychadena bibroni (Hallowell, 1845)

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

Rana Bibroni Hallowell, 1845, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 2: 249. Syntypes: Not stated, although only one specimen noted and this presumed to be in the ANSP collection; MNHNP (6 specimens) considered syntypes, of which MNHNP 513 designated lectotype by Lamotte and Ohler, 1997, Zoosystema, 19: 535. Type locality: "Liberia, W. Africa".

Rana (Ptychadena) bibroni — De Witte, 1921, Rev. Zool. Afr., 9: 6; Parker, 1936, Zool. Meded., Leiden, 19: 88; Guibé and Lamotte, 1955, Bull. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. Paris, Ser. 2, 27: 357. Based on specimens of Ptychadena pujoli according to Lamotte and Ohler, 1997, Zoosystema, 19: 531–543.); Perret and Mertens, 1957, Bull. Inst. Franç. Afr. Noire, Ser. A, 19: 567. Based on Ptychadena arnei, according to Perret, 1997, Bull. Soc. Neuchatel. Sci. Nat., 120: 77.

Rana (Ptychadena) maccarthyensis Andersson, 1937, Ark. Zool., 29(16): 9. Syntypes: ZIUS (5 specimens in original description); MCZ 23030 (on exchange from Stockholm high school) reported as a type by Barbour and Loveridge, 1946, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 96: 183. Type locality: "MacCarthy Island in the Gambia river about 330 km from its mouth". Synonymy by Lamotte and Ohler, 1997, Zoosystema, 19: 533–534.

Ptychadena bibroni  Laurent, 1950, Publ. Cult. Companhia Diamantes Angola, 6: 135 (14 in preprint); Laurent, 1954, Publ. Cult. Companhia Diamantes Angola, 23: 134 (15 of preprint).

Ptychadena bibroni — Guibé and Lamotte, 1957, Bull. Inst. Franç. Afr. Noire, Ser. A, 19: 942; Lamotte, 1967, Bull. Inst. Fondam. Afr. Noire, Ser. A, 29: 241. Based on specimens of Ptychadena pujoli according to Lamotte and Ohler, 1997, Zoosystema, 19: 531–543.

Rana (Ptychadena) maccarthyensis — Guibé and Lamotte, 1957, Bull. Inst. Franç. Afr. Noire, Ser. A, 19: 954; Dubois, 1981, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Suppl., 15: 233, by implication.

Ptychadena maccarthyensis — Schiøtz, 1963, Vidensk. Medd. Dansk Naturhist. Foren., 125: 23; Lamotte, 1967, Bull. Inst. Fondam. Afr. Noire, Ser. A, 29: 238; Perret, 1979, Bull. Soc. Neuchatel. Sci. Nat., 102: 17; Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 56; by implication.

Ptychadena mossambica maccarthyensis — Böhme, 1978, Bonn. Zool. Beitr., 29: 371, by implication.

Ptychadena mascareniensis bibroni — Perret, 1979, Bull. Soc. Neuchatel. Sci. Nat., 102: 7–17.

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

Common Names

Bibron's Grass Frog (Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 326). 

Bibron's Rocket Frog (Spawls, Mazuch, and Mohammad, 2023, Handb. Amph. Rept. NE Afr.: 100, provided an account addressing identification, natural history, conservation status, and range, including a dot map for South Sudan. 

MacCarthy Grassland Frog (Ptychadena maccarthyensis [no longer recognized]: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 105).

Broad-banded Grass Frog (Ptychadena bibroni: Barnett, Emms, and Santoni, 2001, Herpetol. Bull., London, 77: 8).

Distribution

Gambia and southern Mauritania to northeastern Dem. Rep. Congo and South Sudan; presumably to be found in northern Rep. Congo, Guinea-Bissau, and Niger.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Togo

Likely/Controversially Present: Congo, Republic of the, Guinea-Bissau, Niger

Comment

See accounts by (as Rana maccarthyensis) Inger, 1968, Explor. Parc Natl. Garamba, Miss. H. de Saeger, 52: 63, and (as Ptychadena maccarthyensis) Perret, 1979, Bull. Soc. Neuchatel. Sci. Nat., 102: 17, and (as Ptychadena bibroni) by Lamotte and Ohler, 1997, Zoosystema, 19: 531–543. Rödel, 2000, Herpetofauna W. Afr., 1: 96–109, provided an account and discussed various confusions in the literature. See also Perret, 1999, Bull. Soc. Neuchatel. Sci. Nat., 122: 109–112. Padial and De la Riva, 2004, Rev. Esp. Herpetol., 18: 94, provided records from Mauritania. Nago, Grell, Sinsin, and Rödel, 2006, Salamandra, 42: 93–108, provided a record for Benin. Schiøtz, 1963, Vidensk. Medd. Dansk Naturhist. Foren., 125: 23, provided records for Nigeria. Emms, Jambang, Bah, Mankali, Rödel, and Barnett, 2005, Herpetol. Bull., London, 94: 6–16, provided records for Gambia. Channing, Rödel, and Channing, 2012, Tadpoles of Africa: 306, provided information on comparative larval morphology. Padial, Crochet, Géniez, and Brito, 2013, Basic & Appl. Herpetol., 27: 11–22, discussed systematics, distribution, and conservation status in Mauritania. Ohler and Frétey, 2014, J. E. Afr. Nat. Hist., 103: 91, provided a brief discussion of a collection from northern Mozambique. Dehling and Sinsch, 2013, Zool. Anz., 253: 143–157, suggested on the basis of 16s mtDNA distance that an unnamed species conflated with this species is found in Gabon. Onadeko, 2016, Ethiopian J. Environm. Stud. Manag., 9: 22–34, reported on habitat preference in southwestern Nigeria. This species in Mauritania discussed by Sánchez-Vialas, Calvo-Revuelta, and Márquez, 2017, ZooKeys, 673: 125–133. Rödel and Glos, 2019, Zoosyst. Evol., 95: 26, reported on Ptychadena cf. bibroni from the Krahn-Bassa Proposed Protected Area in southeastern Liberia and the Foya Proposed Protected Area in western Liberia, and commented on identification and habitat preference. See detailed account for Mauritania by Escoriza and Ben Hassine, 2019, Amph. N. Afr.: 263–266. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 326–327, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. 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. Ayoro, Segniagbeto, Hema, Penner, Oueda, Dubois, Rödel, Kabré, and Ohler, 2020, Zoosystema, 42: 547–582, discussed records, identification, and habitat in Burkina Faso. Sampaio, Velo-Antón, Martínez-Freiría, Sánchez-Vialas, Pleguezuelos, Géniez, Crochet, and Brito, 2021, Conserv. Genetics, 22: 233–248, discussed conservation genetics and range in Mauritania. 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. Ayoro, Nicolas, Segniagbeto, Hema, Ohler, and Kabré, 2023, Afr. J. Ecol., 61: 878–889, provided dots maps for West Africa and modeled the distribution under the affects of climate change. Olofindji, Ales, and Sogbohossou, 2024, Herpetol. Notes, 17: 483–489, reported the species from the Sitatunga Valley of southern Benin. Segniagbeto, Ohler, Rödel, Luiselli, and Dubois, 2024, Zoosystema, 46: 656–657, provided a brief account for Togo, discussing habitat, distribution, conservation status, and identification. Spawls, Mazuch, and Mohammad, 2023, Handb. Amph. Rept. NE Afr.: 100, provided an account addressing identification, natural history, conservation status, and range, including a dot map for South Sudan. In the Ptychadena bibroni group of Nečas, Mazuch, Czurda, Elmi, Rödel, and Gvoždík, 2025, Afr. J. Herpetol., 73: 236–260.    

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