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 nilotica (Seetzen, 1855)

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

Rana nilotica Seetzen, 1855, Reisen Syrien, 3: 490. Syntypes: 3 specimens, presumably deposted in ZMB. Type locality: "Kahira", (= Cairo), Egypt.

Ptychadena nilotica — Dehling and Sinsch, 2013, Zool. Anz., 253:

Rana venusta Werner, 1908 "1907", Sitzungsber. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Phys. Math. Naturwiss. Kl., 116: 1892. Syntypes: NHMW (3 specimens), by original designation; NHMW 12235 considered holotype by Häupl, Tiedemann, and Grillitsch, 1994, Kat. Wiss. Samml. Naturhist. Mus. Wien, 9: 33. Type localities: "im Sudan ausschliesslich bei Mongolla", Sudan (3 specimens). Synonymy with Ptychadena mascareniensis by Loveridge, 1936, Field Mus. Nat. Hist. Publ., Zool. Ser., 22: 94; Guibé and Lamotte, 1957, Bull. Inst. Franç. Afr. Noire, Ser. A, 19: 979. Provisional synonymy on the basis of geography (DRF).

Rana mascareniensis venusta — Loveridge, 1933, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 74: 370; Loveridge, 1936, Field Mus. Nat. Hist. Publ., Zool. Ser., 22: 94; Mertens, 1938, Senckenb. Biol., 20: 425. See comment.

Ptychadena filwoha Largen, 1997, Tropical Zool., 10: 234. Holotype: BMNH 1974.2842, by original designation. Type locality: "Filwoha, Awash National Park, Shoa, Ethiopia (09° 00′ N 39° 58′ E, altitude 800 m)". Provisional synonymy by Zimkus, Lawson, Barej, Barratt, Channing, Dash, Dehling, Du Preez, Gehring, Greenbaum, Gvoždík, Harvey, Kielgast, Kusamba, Nagy, Pabijan, Penner, Rödel, Vences, and Lötters, 2016, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 106: 265.

English Names

Hot Springs Grass Frog (Ptychadena filwoha [no longer recognized]: Largen and Spawls, 2010, Amph. Rept. Ethiopia Eritrea: 176).

Nile Grass Frog (Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 340).

Distribution

Nile drainage of Egypt and Sudan into Ethiopia, thence south into eastern Dem. Rep. Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, western and southern Kenya and Tanzania; records beyond this area are likely based on misidentifications or unnamed species: Botswana, Mozambique, Swaziland, and extreme eastern Rep. South Africa; presumably in the Caprivi Strip of Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, as well as northern Somalia, Djibouti, and southern Eritrea.

Comment

Dehling and Sinsch, 2013, Zool. Anz., 253: 143–157, described and discussed vocalizations, external morphology (comparing Ptychadena anchietae, Ptychadena nilotica, and Ptychodena porosissima), molecular markers, and resurrected Ptychadena nilotica from the synonymy of Ptychadena mascareniensis, where it had been placed by by Peters, 1869, Reisen Ost-Afr. 1859–1865, 3: 17 (with Rana bibroni); Boulenger, 1879, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 4: 92-94;Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 52; and Guibé and Lamotte, 1957, Bull. Inst. Franç. Afr. Noire, Ser. A, 19: 978. Formerly noted as Ptychadena cf mascareniensis (Clade A) of Vences, Kosuch, Rödel, Channing, Glaw, and Böhme, 2004, J. Biogeograph., 31: 593–601, who noted another unnamed species in Kenya which they labeled as Ptychadena cf mascareniensis (Clade D). Zimkus, Lawson, Barej, Barratt, Channing, Dash, Dehling, Du Preez, Gehring, Greenbaum, Gvoždík, Harvey, Kielgast, Kusamba, Nagy, Pabijan, Penner, Rödel, Vences, and Lötters, 2016, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 106: 254–269, recognized this species as a member of the Ptychadena mascareniensis complex and reported on molecular systematics and range. Largen and Spawls, 2010, Amph. Rept. Ethiopia Eritrea: 176, provided a brief account for Ptychadena filwoha, and Largen, 2001, Tropical Zool., 14: 337, commented on the range of Ptychadena filwoha. Phaka, Netherlands, Kruger, and Du Preez, 2017, Bilingual Field Guide Frogs Zululand: 56, provided a photograph, Zululand regional map, and a brief account of life history and identification. See detailed account for Egypt by Escoriza and Ben Hassine, 2019, Amph. N. Afr.: 266–269. Spawls, Wasonga, and Drewes, 2019, Amph. Kenya: 40, provided a photograph, range map, and brief characterization. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 340–341, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map.

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