Aubria subsigillata (Duméril, 1856)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Pyxicephalidae > Subfamily: Pyxicephalinae > Genus: Aubria > Species: Aubria subsigillata

Rana subsigillata Duméril, 1856, Rev. Mag. Zool., Paris, Ser. 2, 8: 560. Holotype: MNHNP 1566, according to Guibé, 1950 "1948", Cat. Types Amph. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat.: 40. Type locality: "Gabon".

Phrynopsis ventrimaculata Nieden, 1908, Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin, 3: 499. Holotype: ZMB 20134, according to Rödel, Gil, Agyei, Leaché, Diaz, Fujita, and Ernst, 2005, Salamandra, 41: 113. Type locality: "Longji", Cameroon. Synonymy by Schiøtz, 1963, Vidensk. Medd. Dansk Naturhist. Foren., 125: 27; Perret, 1966, Zool. Jahrb., Jena, Abt. Syst., 93: 337 (previously relegated to the synonymy of Pyxicephalus edulis by Loveridge, 1936, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 79: 369–430 (but questioned by Loveridge, 1950, J. E. Afr. Nat. Hist. Soc., 19: 255); and to the synonymy of Leptodactylodon by Laurent, 1946, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 39: 336–338; Perret, 1959, Bull. Soc. Neuchatel. Sci. Nat., 82: 247). Rödel, Gil, Agyei, Leaché, Diaz, Fujita, and Ernst, 2005, Salamandra, 41: 113, confirmed the synonymy.

Rana (Aubria) subsigillata — Boulenger, 1917, C. R. Hebd. Séances Acad. Sci., Paris, 165: 988; Monard, 1937 "1936", Bull. Soc. Neuchatel. Sci. Nat., 62: 47; Guibé, 1950 "1948", Cat. Types Amph. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat.: 40; Dubois, 1981, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Suppl., 15: 233; by implication.

Rana subsigillata — Parker, 1936, Zool. Meded., Leiden, 19: 89.

Leptodactylodon ventrimaculata — Laurent, 1946, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 39: 336–338.

Aubria subsigillata — Laurent, 1953, Bull. Cercle Zool. Congolais, 21: 27; Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 66.

Aubrya subsigillata — Schiøtz, 1964, Vidensk. Medd. Dansk Naturhist. Foren., 127: 6.

Aubria occidentalis Perret, 1995 "1994", Tropical Zool., 7: 258. Holotype: MHNG 2129.17, by original designation. Synonymy by Ohler, 1996, Alytes, 13: 141, and Rödel, Gil, Agyei, Leaché, Diaz, Fujita, and Ernst, 2005, Salamandra, 41: 107–127; this synonymy disputed by Schätti, Perret, and Mariaux, 2002, Cat. Comm. Types Amph. Rept. Mus. Hist. Nat. Geneve, Vers. 4.0 (Jan. 2002): 6.

Common Names

West African Brown Frog (Cochran, 1961, Living Amph. World: 132).

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

Brown Fishing Frog (Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 352).

Distribution

In isolated populations from southern Guinea and northern Liberia through Ivory Coast to southern Cameroon, and thence south through Equatorial Guinea (including Bioko I.) to Gabon.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Benin, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Togo

Comment

See Schiøtz, 1963, Vidensk. Medd. Dansk Naturhist. Foren., 125: 26–27, and Perret, 1966, Zool. Jahrb., Jena, Abt. Syst., 93: 336–338. See systematic discussion of interspecific variation in Ohler and Kazadi, 1990 "1989", Alytes, 8: 25–40. Perret, 1996, Bull. Soc. Neuchatel. Sci. Nat., 119: 95–100, discussed an enigmatic specimen previously allocated to this species from southern Angola in dry savanna. Rödel, Gil, Agyei, Leaché, Diaz, Fujita, and Ernst, 2005, Salamandra, 41: 111–112, discussed that although two species can be distinguished, a short-legged Central African taxon with femoral glands close to the knee (Aubria subsigillata) and a West African and coastal Central African species, with longer legs and with femoral glands positioned half-way between the knee and vent, for which Perret coined the name Aubria occidentalis. Unfortunately, the holotype of Aubria occidentalis was assigned to the species Aubria subsigillata and the name Aubria masako applies to the species recognized as Aubria occidentalis by Perret. Rödel, Gil, Agyei, Leaché, Diaz, Fujita, and Ernst, 2005, Salamandra, 41: 113, also suggested that Aubria masako will likely be found to contain more than one species. Rödel, Brede, Schiefenhövel, Penner, Sinsin, and Nago, 2007, Salamandra, 43: 231–238, reported this species from the Lokoli Forest of southern Benin. Channing, Rödel, and Channing, 2012, Tadpoles of Africa: 330–331, provided information on comparative larval morphology. Onadeko, 2016, Ethiopian J. Environm. Stud. Manag., 9: 22–34, reported on habitat preference in southwestern Nigeria. Dewynter and Frétey, 2019, Cah. Fondation Biotope, 27: 39, summarized the literature for Gabon and provided a photograph (p. 65). Rödel and Glos, 2019, Zoosyst. Evol., 95: 26, reported this species from the Krahn-Bassa Proposed Protected Area in southeastern Liberia and commented on identification and habitat preference. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 352–353, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. See brief account and range map for Equatorial Guinea in Sánchez-Vialas, Calvo-Revuelta, Castroviejo-Fisher, and De la Riva, 2020, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 66: 137–230. Gansa, Agadjihouèdé, and Hounkanrin, 2023, Afr. Zool., 58: 39–56, reported the species from the lower Ouémé Valley, southeastern Benin, and briefly descried habitat preference. Olofindji, Ales, and Sogbohossou, 2024, Herpetol. Notes, 17: 483–489, reported the species from the Sitatunga Valley of southern Benin. Segniagbeto, Ohler, Rödel, Luiselli, and Dubois, 2024, Zoosystema, 46: 659–660, provided a brief account for Togo, discussing habitat, distribution, conservation status, and identification. Gansa and Agadjihouèdé, 2025, S. Am. J. Herpetol., 34: 1–10, reported on habitat, biogeography, distribution, and extinction factors in Benin. 

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