Ptychadena neumanni (Ahl, 1924)

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

Rana neumanni Ahl, 1924, Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin, 11: 4. Syntypes: 35 syntypes noted in original publication; apparently including ZMB 26879 (3 specimens), and MCZ 22331-32 (according to Barbour and Loveridge, 1946, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 96: 184). Restricted to ZMB 26879 (3 specimens) by inference of restricted type locality and action of Largen, 2001, Tropical Zool., 14: 340. ZMB 26979-1 designated lectotype by Goutte, Reyes-Velasco, Freilich, Kassie Teme, and Boissinot, 2021, ZooKeys, 1016: 131.Type locality: "Didda", "Somaliland", "Gadat (Gofa)", and "Ufa"; restricted to "Gadat (Gofa), Sud Ethiopia" by Perret, 1980, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Suppl., 13: 157, and by the lectotype designation of Goutte, Reyes-Velasco, Freilich, Kassie Teme, and Boissinot, 2021, ZooKeys, 1016: 131. Largen, 2001, Tropical Zool., 14: 340 noted that ZMB 26877 and 26878A-T are referable to Ptychadena nana.

Ptychadena neumanniPerret, 1980, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Suppl., 13: 157; Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 56; by implication

Rana (Ptychadena) neumanniDubois, 1981, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Suppl., 15: 233, by implication.

Ptychadena (Ptychadena) neumanniDubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 316.

English Names

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

Neumann's Grass Frog (Largen and Spawls, 2010, Amph. Rept. Ethiopia Eritrea: 189).

Distribution

Found on both sides of the Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia, and limited to the south and southwest (5.80–8.20°N, 35.36–38.64°E), 1409 to 2449 m elevation. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Ethiopia

Endemic: Ethiopia

Comment

See comment under Ptychadena nana. Largen, 2001, Tropical Zool., 14: 338–339, discussed distribution and the difficulty in separating Ptychadena erlangeri and Ptychadena neumanni by external morphology alone. See discussion by Largen, 2001, Tropical Zool., 14: 340–342. See account, photograph, and map for Ethiopia by Largen and Spawls, 2010, Amph. Rept. Ethiopia Eritrea: 188–190, who suggested that this name represents a complex of species of which Ptychadena largeni is only questionably separated. Freilich, Tollis, and Boissinot, 2014, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 71: 157–169, presented molecular evidence that nominal Ptychadena neumanni is composed of at least five species, two of which (sp. 2 and 3) form the sister taxon of Ptychadena erlangeri, one of which is the sister taxon of that group (sp. 4), another that is the sister taxon of that inclusive group (sp. 1), and a fifth (sp. 5) that is the sister taxon of Ptychadena cooperi. This overall complex surrounds Ptychadena nana phylogenetically as well. Geographically they are known definitively from: 1: moist evergreen forests of the southwest to the grasslands in the vicinity of Addis Ababa; 2: widely distributed on both side of the Great Rift and limited to grasslands (Ptychadena largeni); 3: Bale Mountains (now Ptychadena levenorum); 4: southern part of the Eastern Highlands (now Ptychadena goweri); 5: western highlands, north of the Blue Nile Valley (now Ptychadena amharensis). Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 340–341, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. See Goutte, Reyes-Velasco, Freilich, Kassie Teme, and Boissinot, 2021, ZooKeys, 1016: 77–141, for detailed account, phylogenetic placement, morphometrics, advertisement call, habitat, and placement in their Ptychadena neumanni group of the Ptychadena neumanni complex. Specific results of this study were the decisive separation of Ptychadena erlangeri (reported by Freilich et al., 2014, and Reyes et al., 2018) as Ptychadena cf. neumanni 2). Kassie Teme, Bekele Simegn, and Afework Bogale, 2022, Global Ecol. Conserv., 38 (e02211): 1–12, reported the species from Keffa Zone, southwestern Ethiopia, and discussed habitat. Lyra, Kirchhof, Goutte, Kassie Teme, and Boissinot, 2023, Frontiers in Genetics, 14(1215715): 1–14, reported on the diversification and biogeography on the Ethiopian highlands, provided a dot map, and considered the species to be in the Ptychadena neumanni clade. 

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