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

Tomopterna cryptotis (Boulenger, 1907)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Pyxicephalidae > Subfamily: Cacosterninae > Genus: Tomopterna > Species: Tomopterna cryptotis

Rana cryptotis Boulenger, 1907, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 7, 20: 109. Syntypes: BMNH, by original designation, these being BMNH 1907.6.29.82–89 (now renumbered 1947.2.1.73–78), and 1907.6.29.90–96 (now renumbered 1947.2.28.48–54) according to museum records, and MCZ 19268 (on exchange from BMNH, according to Barbour and Loveridge, 1946, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 96: 182). Type locality: "Catequero, Ponang Kuma (Dongwenna), and in the Kafitu Swamps", Angola.

Rana delalandii cryptotis — Loveridge, 1936, Field Mus. Nat. Hist. Publ., Zool. Ser., 22: 90.

Pyxicephalus delalandii cryptotis — Pienaar, 1963, Koedoe, 6: 79. Referring to what is now Tomopterna adiastola.

Pyxicephalus delalandei cryptotis — Poynton, 1964, Ann. Natal Mus., 17: 96. Referring to what is now Tomopterna adiastola.

Rana (Pyxicephalus) delalandii cryptotis — Mertens, 1971, Abh. Senckenb. Naturforsch. Ges., 529: 7. Referring to what is now Tomopterna adiastola.

Tomopterna delalandei cryptotis — Stevens, 1974, Arnoldia, Zimbabwe, 6: 6.

Tomopterna cryptotis — Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 120; Poynton and Broadley, 1985, Ann. Natal Mus., 27: 125. Referring to what is now Tomopterna adiastola

Rana (Tomopterna) cryptotis — Dubois, 1981, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Suppl., 15: 233, by implication.

Tomopterna (Tomopterna) cryptotis — Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 56.

English Names

Catequero Bullfrog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 110).

Cryptic Sand Frog (Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 329).

Common Sand Frog (Largen and Spawls, 2010, Amph. Rept. Ethiopia Eritrea: 194).

Distribution

Angola, northern Botswana, southwestern Zambia and northern Namibia, although expected to be found more widely. See comment.

Comment

See Tomopterna milletihorsini for North and East African records previously assigned to this species and Tomopterna adiastola for records from northern Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa. Caution should be used in employing any of the citations below that are older than 2021 for southern Africa and 2008 for northern Africa, and about 2010 for East Africa. Good luck out there! Poynton and Broadley, 1985, Ann. Natal Mus., 27: 125–127, for account and synonymy for the species as then recognized from Botswana, Caprivi (Namibia), Zambia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. Pickersgill, 2007, Frog Search: 118–121, provided an account and suggested that this nominal species is composed of several lineages (which, in fact, turned out to be correct; see Tomopterna milletihorsini, Tomopterna tandyi, and Tomopterna adiastola). Zimkus and Larson, 2011, Zootaxa, 2933: 27–45, provided molecular data showing that records from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Somalia belong to other species (Tomopterna kachowskii, and Tomopterna elegans). Mercurio, 2011, Amph. Malawi: 291, provided an account as Tomopterna cryptotis for Malawi, although the current identification is unknown. Marques, Ceríaco, Blackburn, and Bauer, 2018, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 65 (Suppl. II): 153–154, provided a map for Angola and brief discussion of the literature. Wilson and Channing, 2019, Zootaxa, 4609: 225–246, provided a map of Tomopterna as then recognized in southern and East Africa that should help with the confusion in the earlier literature. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 378–379, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map (prior to the recognition of Tomopterna adiastola). Baptista, António, and Branch, 2019, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 13 (e203): 96–130, reported on specimens from Bicuar National Park, southwestern Angola and commented on the unsettled state of systematics.

External links:

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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 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.