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

Ptychadena newtoni (Barboza du Bocage, 1886)

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

Rana newtoni Barboza du Bocage, 1886, J. Sci. Math. Phys. Nat., Lisboa, 11 (42): 73. Syntypes: MBL T. 7.117 (2 specimens), according to Perret, 1976, Arq. Mus. Bocage, Ser. 2, 6: 21; destroyed in 1978 fire. Type locality: "l'Ile St. Thomé" = São Tomé. Corrected to "Ilha de S. Thomé: rio da Agua Grande" by Barboza du Bocage, 1897, J. Sci. Math. Phys. Nat., Lisboa, Ser. 2, 6: 203.

Rana (Ptychadena) newtoni — De Witte, 1921, Rev. Zool. Afr., 9: 6; Dubois, 1981, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Suppl., 15: 233; by implication.

Ptychadena newtoni — Perret, 1976, Arq. Mus. Bocage, Ser. 2, 6: 20; Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 56; by implication.

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

English Names

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

Newton's Grass Frog (Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 334).

Distribution

São Tomé Island, below 600 m elevation, Gulf of Guinea.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: São Tomé and Principe

Endemic: São Tomé and Principe

Comment

Removed from the synonymy of Ptychadena mascareniensis by Perret, 1976, Arq. Mus. Bocage, Ser. 2, 6: 20 (where it had been placed by Guibé and Lamotte, 1957, Bull. Inst. Franç. Afr. Noire, Ser. A, 19: 937-1003), who noted that this species more resembled Ptychadena oxyrhynchus (in which synonym it had been formerly placed by Andersson, 1937, Ark. Zool., 29(16): 1-28). Loumont, 1992, Alytes, 10: 37-62, supported the distinctiveness of this species. Measey, Vences, Drewes, Chiari, Melo, and Bourles, 2007, J. Biogeograph., 34: 7-20, provided phylogenetic evidence that Ptychadena newtoni is phylogenetically imbedded within Ptychadena mascareniensis. See photograph, map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 500. See comments by Drewes and Stoelting, 2004, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 55: 578. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 334–335, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Bell, Ceríaco, Scheinberg, and Drewes, 2022, in Ceríaco et al. (eds.), Biodiversity Gulf Guinea Islands: 495–496, summarized the literature and systematics of the species. Ceríaco, Marques, Sousa, Veríssimo, Beja, and Ferreira, 2023, ZooKeys, 1168: 41–75, included this species in a report, key, and DNA barcode reference library for the amphibians of São Tomé and Príncipe.

External links:

Please note: these links will take you to external websites not affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History. We are not responsible for their content.

For additional sources of general information from other websites search Google
For access to relevant technical literature search Google Scholar
For images search CalPhoto Images and Google Images
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 observation see iNaturalist
For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.