Ptychadena taenioscelis Laurent, 1954

Common Names

Dwarf Rana (Wager, 1965, Frogs S. Afr.: 160; Passmore and Carruthers, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 19: 5; Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 162).

Stripe-legged Frog (Van Dijk, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 17: 15).

Dwarf Grass Frog (Passmore and Carruthers, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 19: 5; Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 162; Minter and Passmore, 2004, in Minter et al. (eds.), Atlas Frogs S. Afr. Lesotho and Swaziland: 294; Du Preez and Carruthers, 2009, Compl. Guide Frogs S. Afr.: 324).

Spotted Throated Ridged Frog (Passmore and Carruthers, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 19: 5; Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 162).

Lukula Grassland Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 106).

Small Ridged Frog (Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 341; Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 315; Lötters, Wagner, Bwong, Schick, Malonza, Muchai, Wasonga, and Veith, 2007, Fieldguide Amph. Rept. Kakamega Forest: 25).

Southern Dwarf Grass Frog (Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 326).

Distribution

Northern Mozambique, northern Botswana, and eastern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, throughout Angola, to Gabon and Kenya; expected in Uganda and Zimbabwe. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Angola, Botswana, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Congo, Republic of the, Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia

Likely/Controversially Present: Uganda, Zimbabwe

Comment

Discussed by Perret, 1979, Bull. Soc. Neuchatel. Sci. Nat., 102: 15, as subspecies of Ptychadena pumilio. Removed from the synonymy of Ptychadena pumilio by Poynton and Broadley, 1985, Ann. Natal Mus., 27: 153, who mentioned that Perret (in litt.) disputed the synonymy of of Ptychadena smithi Guibé, 1960. See also Poynton, 1964, Ann. Natal Mus., 17: 132. Account in Schmidt and Inger, 1959, Explor. Parc Natl. Upemba, Miss. G.F. de Witte, 56: 109–111. See also brief account by Lambiris, 1988, Lammergeyer, 39: 85–86. Rödel, 2000, Herpetofauna W. Afr., 1: 95, discussed briefly the issue of possible conspecificity of this species with Ptychadena pumilio. Records of Ptychadena pumilio in South Africa refer to Ptychadena taenioscelis. See accounts by Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 341–342, Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 315–316, Minter and Passmore, 2004, in Minter et al. (eds.), Atlas Frogs S. Afr. Lesotho and Swaziland: 294–296, Lötters, Wagner, Bwong, Schick, Malonza, Muchai, Wasonga, and Veith, 2007, Fieldguide Amph. Rept. Kakamega Forest: 25–26, and Du Preez and Carruthers, 2009, Compl. Guide Frogs S. Afr.: 324. Schiøtz, 1963, Vidensk. Medd. Dansk Naturhist. Foren., 125: 24, provided records for Nigeria. Lötters, Rotich, Koester, Kosuch, Muchai, Scheelke, Schick, Teege, Wasonga, and Veith, 2006, Salamandra, 42: 165–179, provided a Kenyan locality. Pauwels and Rödel, 2007, Herpetozoa, Wien, 19: 135–148, tentatively regarded Ptychadena taenioscelis as synonymous with Ptychadena pumilio. Pickersgill, 2007, Frog Search: 147–150, provided an account and rejected any close relationship of Ptychadena taenioscelis and Ptychadena pumilio. Jacobsen, 2009, Afr. Herp News, 47: 2–20, reported this species from east-north-central Central African Republic, subsequently shown to apply to other species. Bwong, Chira, Schick, Veith, and Lötters, 2009, Salamandra, 45: 129–146, discussed the assignment of a population in western Kenya to this taxon and outstanding questions regarding the systematics of this species. Mercurio, 2011, Amph. Malawi: 268–270, provided an account for Malawi. Harper, Measey, Patrick, Menegon, and Vonesh, 2010, Field Guide Amph. E. Arc Mts. Tanzania and Kenya: 270–271, provided a brief account and photograph. Ohler and Frétey, 2014, J. E. Afr. Nat. Hist., 103: 100–101, provided a brief discussion of a collection from northern Mozambique. Passmore, 1976, Zool. Afr., 11: 339–347, reported on vocalizations. Deichmann, Mulcahy, Vanthomme, Tobi, Wynn, Zimkus, and McDiarmid, 2017, PLoS One, 12 (11: e0187283): 22–23, discussed the possibility of this nominal species (in the sense of being a complex) in Gabon and Rep. Congo. Dewynter, Chirio, Melki, Cordier, and Frétey, 2017, Cah. Fondation Biotope, 11: 25, provided a brief account and photographs of this species from the Mount Koumouna-Bouali area of Gabon. Conradie, Bittencourt-Silva, Engelbrecht, Loader, Menegon, Nanvonamuquitxo, Scott, and Tolley, 2016, Zoosyst. Evol., Berlin, 92: 163–180, reported a population from  Mount M'pàluwé (Nampula Province), Mozambique. Dewynter and Frétey, 2019, Cah. Fondation Biotope, 27: 38, summarized the literature for Gabon, provided photographs (p. 64, as Ptychadena cf taenioscelis), and briefly summarized the taxonomic difficulties. Phaka, Netherlands, Kruger, and Du Preez, 2017, Bilingual Field Guide Frogs Zululand: 59, 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): 11, for comment on population likely of this species in western Zambia and confusion with Ptychadena pumilio. 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.: 326–327, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Conradie, Keates, Verburgt, Baptista, and Harvey, 2023, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 17: 46–47, provided an account and dot map of the species in Angola. 

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• For information on distribution, habitat, and conservation see the Map of Life
• For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist
• For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.