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

Cacosternum boettgeri (Boulenger, 1882)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Pyxicephalidae > Subfamily: Cacosterninae > Genus: Cacosternum > Species: Cacosternum boettgeri

Arthroleptis boettgeri Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 118. Syntypes: BMNH (4 specimens), including animal figured on pl. 11, fig. 6 in the original publication; these specimens being BMNH 1947.2.30.77–80 (formerly 1879.8.5.18–21) according to museum records. Lambiris, 1988, Lammergeyer, 39: 110, reported a BMNH "holotype". Type locality: "Vleis [= grassy marshes], Kaffraria", Cape Province, Rep. South Africa.

Cacosternum boettgeri — Boulenger, 1906, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 7, 17: 317–323; Boulenger, 1910, Ann. S. Afr. Mus., 5: 533.

Arthroleptis schebeni Nieden, 1914 "1913", Sitzungsber. Ges. Naturforsch. Freunde Berlin, 1913: 451. Syntypes: ZMB (4 specimens), by original designation. Type locality: "Deutsch-Südwestafrika [= Namibia] .... Klein Nauas (in der Kalahari". Synonymy by Mertens, 1955, Abh. Senckenb. Naturforsch. Ges., 490: 1–171.

Cacosternum boettgeri boettgeri — Hewitt, 1926, Ann. Natal Mus., 5: 440.

Common Names

Boettger's Frog (Hewitt, 1937, Guide Vert. Fauna E. Cape Province, Rept. Amph. Fishes: 104).

Dainty Frog (Pienaar, 1963, Koedoe, 6: 80; Wager, 1965, Frogs S. Afr.: 167).

Common Caco (Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 182).

Common Dainty Frog (Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 182).

Boettger's Dainty Frog (Broadley, 1973, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 10: 23; Passmore and Carruthers, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 19: 6; Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 182; Lambiris, 1990 "1989", Monogr. Mus. Reg. Sci. Nat. Torino, 10: 131; Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 287; Scott, 2004, in Minter et al. (eds.), Atlas Frogs S. Afr. Lesotho and Swaziland: 222).

Boettger's Froglet (Van Dijk, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 17: 16; Broadley, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 19: 34; Passmore and Carruthers, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 19: 6; Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 182).

Boettger's Metal Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 98).

Boettger's Caco (Scott, 2004, in Minter et al. (eds.), Atlas Frogs S. Afr. Lesotho and Swaziland: 222; Du Preez and Carruthers, 2009, Compl. Guide Frogs S. Afr.: 364).

Boettger's Dainty Frog (Largen and Spawls, 2010, Amph. Rept. Ethiopia Eritrea: 198; Channing, Schmitz, Burger, and Kielgast, 2013, Zootaxa, 3701: 529).

Distribution

Throughout Namibia to at least the Angola border (see comment), Rep. South Africa, Eswatini, southern Mozambique, southern Botswana, through Zimbabwe to southern Zambia (see comment); expected in northeastern Angola; see comment regarding Ethiopian records.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Botswana, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Likely/Controversially Present: Angola

Comment

See accounts by Poynton, 1964, Ann. Natal Mus., 17: 146–147, Poynton and Broadley, 1985, Ann. Natal Mus., 27: 174, Lambiris, 1988, Lammergeyer, 39: 110–111, Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 287–288, Pickersgill, 2007, Frog Search: 284–286, and Du Preez and Carruthers, 2009, Compl. Guide Frogs S. Afr.: 364-365. See comment under Cacosternum striatus. Largen, 2001, Tropical Zool., 14: 344, commented on distribution. Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 263-264, removed the Tanzania and Kenya population from this taxon as Cacosternum plimptoni. With the removal of Cacosternum plimptoni the status of the Ethiopian population remains questionable as noted by Zimkus, 2008, Herpetol. Rev., 39: 233. Bates and Haacke, 2003, Navors. Nas. Mus. Bloemfontein, 19: 1137–138, discussed the species in Lesotho. See account, photograph, and map for Ethiopia by Largen and Spawls, 2010, Amph. Rept. Ethiopia Eritrea: 198–199. Channing, Schmitz, Burger, and Kielgast, 2013, Zootaxa, 3701: 529–530, commented on this species and placed it phylogenetically and suggested that the Ethiopian population assigned to this species almost certainly is an unnamed species. Channing, Rödel, and Channing, 2012, Tadpoles of Africa: 332, provided information on comparative larval morphology. Baptista, Conradie, Vaz Pinto, and Branch, 2019, In Huntley, Russo, Lages, and Ferrand (eds.), Biodiversity in Angola: 258, noted specimens near the Angola border in the Caprivi strip of Namibia, and Omusati and southern provinces of Zambia, adjacent to the Angola border, suggesting its eventual discovery there. Phaka, Netherlands, Kruger, and Du Preez, 2017, Bilingual Field Guide Frogs Zululand: 62, provided a photograph, Zululand regional map, and a brief account of life history and identification. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 368–369, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map which cast doubt on records from Zimbabwe and Zambia.

External links:

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For access to general information see Wikipedia
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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 observations see iNaturalist
For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.