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 porosissima (Steindachner, 1867)

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

Rana porosissima Steindachner, 1867, Reise Österreichischen Fregatte Novara, Zool., Amph.: 18. Holotype: NHMW 14772, according to Häupl and Tiedemann, 1978, Kat. Wiss. Samml. Naturhist. Mus. Wien, 2: 28. Type locality: "Angola".

Ptychadena loveridgei Laurent, 1954, Ann. Mus. R. Congo Belge, Tervuren, Zool., 34: 14. Holotype: MRAC 109038 according to Lang, 1990, Doc. Trav., Inst. R. Sci. Nat. Belg., 59: 12. Type locality: "Tare, Busanza, région d'Astrida, env. 1.800 m., Ruanda". Synonymy by Schmidt and Inger, 1959, Explor. Parc Natl. Upemba, Miss. G.F. de Witte, 56: 96. This synonymy not noted by Poynton, 1964, Ann. Natal Mus., 17: 129. See comment.

Rana (Ptychadena) porosissima — Inger, 1956, J. Morphol., 99: 57; Dubois, 1981, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Suppl., 15: 233; by implication.

Rana (Ptychadena) loveridgei — Guibé and Lamotte, 1957, Bull. Inst. Franç. Afr. Noire, Ser. A, 19: 942, by implication.

Ptychadena poyntoni Guibé, 1960, Bull. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. Paris, Ser. 2, 32: 200. Syntypes: NMP 2303-05. Type locality: "Inhluzane, 75 miles west of Pietermaritzburg", KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Synonymy by Poynton, 1964, Ann. Natal Mus., 17: 129.

Ptychadena porosissima — Poynton, 1964, Ann. Natal Mus., 17: 129; Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 56, by implication.

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

English Names

Three-striped Rana (Wager, 1965, Frogs S. Afr.: 158; Passmore and Carruthers, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 19: 5; Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 158).

Three-striped Grass Frog (Passmore and Carruthers, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 19: 5).

Striped Grass Frog (Broadley, 1973, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 10: 23; Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 158; Minter and Passmore, 2004, in Minter et al. (eds.), Atlas Frogs S. Afr. Lesotho and Swaziland: 292); Lambiris, 1990 "1989", Monogr. Mus. Reg. Sci. Nat. Torino, 10: 114; Du Preez and Carruthers, 2009, Compl. Guide Frogs S. Afr.: 318; Largen and Spawls, 2010, Amph. Rept. Ethiopia Eritrea: 185).

Steindachner's Frog (Van Dijk, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 17: 15).

Grassland Ridged Frog (Passmore and Carruthers, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 19: 5; Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 158; Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 337; Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 311; Minter and Passmore, 2004, in Minter et al. (eds.), Atlas Frogs S. Afr. Lesotho and Swaziland: 292; Lötters, Wagner, Bwong, Schick, Malonza, Muchai, Wasonga, and Veith, 2007, Fieldguide Amph. Rept. Kakamega Forest: 23).

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

Distribution

Western and central Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda to eastern Rep. South Africa, west to southwestern and northeastern Angola (see comment) through southern Dem. Rep. Congo, occurring mostly in cooler regions; isolated and old record for Lake Tana, 1900 m elevation, Ethiopia.

Comment

Discussed by Poynton, 1964, Ann. Natal Mus., 17: 129. Erroneously considered a synonym of Ptychadena subpunctata by Loveridge, 1953, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 110: 329, and Ptychadena mascareniensis by Guibé and Lamotte, 1957, Bull. Inst. Franç. Afr. Noire, Ser. A, 19: 978. Reviewed by Schmidt and Inger, 1959, Explor. Parc Natl. Upemba, Miss. G.F. de Witte, 56: 96-101. Passmore, 1977, S. Afr. J. Sci., 73: 212–214, described the advertisement call. See also accounts by Poynton and Broadley, 1985, Ann. Natal Mus., 27: 149-150, Lambiris, 1988, Lammergeyer, 39: 84-85, Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 337-338, Minter and Passmore, 2004, in Minter et al. (eds.), Atlas Frogs S. Afr. Lesotho and Swaziland: 292-293, Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 311-312, Pickersgill, 2007, Frog Search: 143-145, Lötters, Wagner, Bwong, Schick, Malonza, Muchai, Wasonga, and Veith, 2007, Fieldguide Amph. Rept. Kakamega Forest: 23-24, and Du Preez and Carruthers, 2009, Compl. Guide Frogs S. Afr.: 318-319, provided accounts. Bwong, Chira, Schick, Veith, and Lötters, 2009, Salamandra, 45: 129-146, discussed the assignment of a population in western Kenya to this taxon. Bates and Haacke, 2003, Navors. Nas. Mus. Bloemfontein, 19: 142, suggested the possible presence of this species in Lesotho. See account, photograph, and map for Ethiopia by Largen and Spawls, 2010, Amph. Rept. Ethiopia Eritrea: 185. Mercurio, 2011, Amph. Malawi: 265, provided an account for Malawi. Channing, Rödel, and Channing, 2012, Tadpoles of Africa: 311, provided information on comparative larval morphology. Dehling and Sinsch, 2013, Zool. Anz., 253: 143–157, reported on the morphology and molecular phylogenetics of this species compared with others found in Rwanda. Ohler and Frétey, 2014, J. E. Afr. Nat. Hist., 103: 100, provided a brief discussion of a collection from northern Mozambique. Marques, Ceríaco, Blackburn, and Bauer, 2018, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 65 (Suppl. II): 138–139, provided a map for Angola and brief discussion of the literature. Phaka, Netherlands, Kruger, and Du Preez, 2017, Bilingual Field Guide Frogs Zululand: 58, provided a photograph, Zululand regional map, and a brief account of life history and identification. See Bittencourt-Silva, 2019, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 13 (2: e181): 12, for comment on population in western Zambia. Spawls, Wasonga, and Drewes, 2019, Amph. Kenya: 42, provided a photograph, range map, and brief characterization. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 334–335, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Baptista, António, and Branch, 2019, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 13 (e203): 96–130, reported on specimens from Bicuar National Park, southwestern Angola. Ceríaco, Marques, André, Afonso, Blackburn, and Bauer, 2020, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 162: 410–411, discussed the location and status of the MD paratypes, but curiously not the holotype.

External links:

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For related information on conservation and images as well as observation see iNaturalist; for a quick link to their maps see iNaturalist KML
For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.