Pyxicephalus edulis Peters, 1854

Common Names

Lesser Bull-frog (Van Dijk, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 17: 15).

Peter's Bullfrog (Lambiris, 1990 "1989", Monogr. Mus. Reg. Sci. Nat. Torino, 10: 81).

Edible Bullfrog (Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 349; Cook and Minter, 2004, in Minter et al. (eds.), Atlas Frogs S. Afr. Lesotho and Swaziland: 303-305).

Edible Frog (Emms, Jambang, Bah, Mankali, Rödel, and Barnett, 2005, Herpetol. Bull., London, 94: 11).

African Bullfrog (Du Preez and Carruthers, 2009, Compl. Guide Frogs S. Afr.: 416).

Distribution

Flooded grasslands from Senegal, Mauritania, and Nigeria in seemingly isolated populations to southern Sudan, and northern South Sudan, southern Somalia, central to southeastern Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe, southeastern Angola, eastern half of Botswana, northern Zambia, and northeastern Rep. South Africa; Eswatini; expected in southern Mali, northern Central African Republic, southern Chad. See comment. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Eswatini, Gambia, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Likely/Controversially Present: Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Namibia

Comment

Elevated from subspecies status under Pyxicephalus adspersus by Perret, 1966, Zool. Jahrb., Jena, Abt. Syst., 93: 329, and Channing, Du Preez, and Passmore, 1994, J. Zool., London, 234: 141-148, where it had been placed by  Loveridge, 1950, J. E. Afr. Nat. Hist. Soc., 19: 255, and Loveridge, 1953, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 110: 375, after being considered a synonym of Pyxicephalus adspersus by Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 33. Most of the literature of "Pyxicephalus adspersus" applies to this species. Auerbach, 1987, Amph. Rept. Botswana: 44, provided a summary account for Pyxicephalus adspersus edulis and grid map for Botswana. See Channing, Du Preez, and Passmore, 1994, J. Zool., London, 234: 141-148, for a discussion of the biology and summary of previous literature confusion. Rödel, 2000, Herpetofauna W. Afr., 1: 72-75, provided an account and noted that Pyxicephalus edulis may be composite. Du Preez and Carruthers, 2009, Compl. Guide Frogs S. Afr.: 416-417, provided an account for southern Africa. The status of the northern populations, tentatively assigned to Pyxicephalus edulis, is questionable (DRF). See comment by Lanza, 1990, Biogeographia, 14: 410-411, regarding the status of populatins in Somalia. Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 322-323, provided an account and noted confusion with Pyxicephalus adspersus in Kenya and Tanzania. Padial and De la Riva, 2004, Rev. Esp. Herpetol., 18: 94-95, provided records from Mauritania. Nago, Grell, Sinsin, and Rödel, 2006, Salamandra, 42: 93-108, provided a record for Benin, discussed the range, and noted that the taxonomic status of West African populations is unclear. Emms, Jambang, Bah, Mankali, Rödel, and Barnett, 2005, Herpetol. Bull., London, 94: 6-16, provided a record for Gambia. Pickersgill, 2007, Frog Search: 106-109, provided an account. Blackburn, 2008, Herpetol. Rev., 39: 364, reported Pyxicephalus sp. from Niger and briefly discussed the taxonomic difficulty of assigning names to West African populations. Channing, Rödel, and Channing, 2012, Tadpoles of Africa: 345, provided information on comparative larval morphology and noted an unnamed species masquerading under this name. Harper, Measey, Patrick, Menegon, and Vonesh, 2010, Field Guide Amph. E. Arc Mts. Tanzania and Kenya: 284–285, provided a brief account and photograph. Padial, Crochet, Géniez, and Brito, 2013, Basic & Appl. Herpetol., 27: 11–22, discussed systematics, distribution, and conservation status in Mauritania. Du Preez and Carruthers, 2017, Frogs S. Afr., Compl. Guide: 444–445, provided an account, including a polygon range map for southern Africa, photograph, identification features, adult and larval morphology, habitat, and call. Ohler and Frétey, 2014, J. E. Afr. Nat. Hist., 103: 102, provided a brief discussion of a collection from northern Mozambique. Marques, Ceríaco, Blackburn, and Bauer, 2018, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 65 (Suppl. II): 152–153, provided a map for Angola and brief discussion of the literature. Phaka, Netherlands, Kruger, and Du Preez, 2017, Bilingual Field Guide Frogs Zululand: 68, provided a photograph, Zululand regional map, and a brief account of life history and identification. See detailed account for Mauritania by Escoriza and Ben Hassine, 2019, Amph. N. Afr.: 278–281. Spawls, Wasonga, and Drewes, 2019, Amph. Kenya: 35, provided a range map for Kenya, photograph, and brief characterization. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 376–379, provided brief accounts photographs, and range maps for Pyxicephalus edulis sensu stricto and an unnamed species "Pyxicephalus sp. 'edulis West' (the West African component of the range).  Ayoro, Segniagbeto, Hema, Penner, Oueda, Dubois, Rödel, Kabré, and Ohler, 2020, Zoosystema, 42: 547–582, discussed records (as Pyxicephalus maltzanii), identification, and habitat in Burkina Faso. Sampaio, Velo-Antón, Martínez-Freiría, Sánchez-Vialas, Pleguezuelos, Géniez, Crochet, and Brito, 2021, Conserv. Genetics, 22: 233–248, discussed landscape genetics and range in Mauritania. Spawls, Mazuch, and Mohammad, 2023, Handb. Amph. Rept. NE Afr.: 119–120, provided an account addressing identification, natural history, conservation status, and range, including a dot map.  

   

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