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 capense Hewitt, 1925

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

Cacosternum capense Hewitt, 1925, Rec. Albany Mus., 3: 367. Syntypes: AMG (2 specimens), now in PEM; PEM A4963 designated lectotype by Conradie, Branch, and Watson, 2015, Zootaxa, 3936: 58, who discussed the types. Type locality: "Cape Flats near Capetown", Western Cape Province, Rep. Africa.

Common Names

Dainty Frog (Wager, 1965, Frogs S. Afr.: 167).

Cape Caco (Passmore and Carruthers, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 19: 6; Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 184; De Villiers, 2004, in Minter et al. (eds.), Atlas Frogs S. Afr. Lesotho and Swaziland: 224; Du Preez and Carruthers, 2009, Compl. Guide Frogs S. Afr.: 366).

Cross-marked Frog (Rose, 1950, Rep. Amph. S. Afr.: 81; Cochran, 1961, Living Amph. World: 164; Rose, 1962, Rep. Amph. S. Afr., Ed. 2: 78; Passmore and Carruthers, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 19: 6; Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 184).

Cape Froglet (Van Dijk, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 17: 16).

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

Cape Dainty Frog (Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 288; Channing, Schmitz, Burger, and Kielgast, 2013, Zootaxa, 3701: 530).

Distribution

Low-lying sandy areas from Stellenbosch to Malmesbury, Western Cape Province, Rep. South Africa; no longer found in Cape Town.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: South Africa

Endemic: South Africa

Comment

See accounts by Poynton, 1964, Ann. Natal Mus., 17: 151, Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 288-289, De Villiers, 2004, in Minter et al. (eds.), Atlas Frogs S. Afr. Lesotho and Swaziland: 224-227, and Du Preez and Carruthers, 2009, Compl. Guide Frogs S. Afr.: 366-367. 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: 469. Channing, Schmitz, Burger, and Kielgast, 2013, Zootaxa, 3701: 518–550, commented on the species and placed it phylogenetically. Channing, Rödel, and Channing, 2012, Tadpoles of Africa: 332–333, provided information on comparative larval morphology. Du Preez and Carruthers, 2017, Frogs S. Afr., Compl. Guide: 408–409, provided an account, including a polygon range map, photograph, identification features, adult morphology, habitat, and call. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 368–369, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Angus, Telford, Ping, and Conradie, 2024, Zootaxa, 5512: 1–21, provided a niche-modeled distribution map and placement in a 16s mtDNA tree as well as a description of the advertisement call. Dorse and Dorse, 2023, Field Guide Fynbos Fauna: 46–47, provided a brief account, polygon range map, and photograph.

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