Hylarana albolabris (Hallowell, 1856)

Common Names

White-lipped Frog (Broadley, 1971, Puku, 6: 114; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 106; Lötters, Wagner, Bwong, Schick, Malonza, Muchai, Wasonga, and Veith, 2007, Fieldguide Amph. Rept. Kakamega Forest: 18).

Forest White-lipped Frog (Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 255; Spawls, Mazuch, and Mohammad, 2023, Handb. Amph. Rept. NE Afr.: 128).

Bamileke Plateau Frog (Amnirana longipes [no longer recognized]: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 108).

Long-footed White-lipped Frog (Amnirana longipes [no longer recognized]): Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 392). 

West African White-lipped Frog (Kanga, Kouamé, Zogbass, Gongomin, Agoh, Kouamé, Konan, Adepo-Gourène, Gourène, and Rödel, 2021, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 15: 96, with reference to the unnamed western lineage of this nominal species).

Distribution

Coastal eastern Nigeria, southern 2/3s of Cameroon south through Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Rep. Congo and Dem. Rep. Congo south to northern Angola; east through southern Central African Republic and central and northern Dem. Rep. Congo to Rwanda, Uganda, and southwestern Kenya; expected in Burundi. See comment. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Congo, Republic of the, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda

Likely/Controversially Present: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi

Comment

In the Rana (Amnirana) albolabris group of Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 324. Perret, 1977, Rev. Suisse Zool., 84: 846–850, reviewed the species as Hylarana albolabris. De la Riva, 1994, Rev. Esp. Herpetol., 8: 134–135, provided a record for Equatorial Guinea. Frétey and Blanc, 2002 "2001", Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 126: 385, reported this species from Gabon. Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 255–256, and Pickersgill, 2007, Frog Search: 85–86, provided accounts (as Amnirana albolabris). Rödel, Brede, Schiefenhövel, Penner, Sinsin, and Nago, 2007, Salamandra, 43: 231–238, reported this species from the Lokoli Forest of southern Benin. Lasso, Rial, Castroviejo, and De la Riva, 2002, Graellsia, 58: 21–34, provided notes (as Amnirana albolabris) on ecological distribution in Equatorial Guinea. Schiøtz, 1963, Vidensk. Medd. Dansk Naturhist. Foren., 125: 29–30, provided records for Nigeria. Jackson and Blackburn, 2007, Salamandra, 43: 149–164, provided a record for Nouabale-Ndoki National Park, Rep. Congo. Lötters, Wagner, Bwong, Schick, Malonza, Muchai, Wasonga, and Veith, 2007, Fieldguide Amph. Rept. Kakamega Forest: 18–20, provided an account. Channing, Rödel, and Channing, 2012, Tadpoles of Africa: 361–362, provided information on comparative larval morphology. Reviewed as Hylarana longipes by Perret, 1977, Rev. Suisse Zool., 84: 850–853. See map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status (as Amnirana longipes) in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 475. Nagy, Chifundera, Collet, and Gvoždík, 2013, Herpetol. Notes, 6:  413–419, provided a record from Bas-Congo, southwestern Dem. Rep. Congo. Jongsma, Barej, Barratt, Burger, Conradie, Ernst, Greenbaum, Hirschfeld, Leaché, Penner, Portik, Zassi-Boulou, Rödel, and Blackburn, 2018, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 120: 274–285, discussed the molecular phylogenetics of the nominal species, suggesting that the population west of Benin constitutes an unnamed species (now Amnirana parva), more closely related to Amnirana fonensis, and that nominal Amnirana albolabris is composed of up to four species, although the authors chose to wait on additional evidence before applying available names. Marques, Ceríaco, Blackburn, and Bauer, 2018, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 65 (Suppl. II): 158, provided a map for Angola and brief discussion of the literature. Dewynter and Frétey, 2019, Cah. Fondation Biotope, 27: 40, summarized the literature for Gabon and provided photographs (p. 66). Rödel and Glos, 2019, Zoosyst. Evol., 95: 27, reported Amnirana 'albolabris-West" (now either Amnirana parva or Amnirana fonensis) from the Krahn-Bassa Proposed Protected Area in southeastern Liberia and the Foya Proposed Protected Area in western Liberia, and commented on identification and habitat preference. Spawls, Wasonga, and Drewes, 2019, Amph. Kenya: 48, provided a photograph, range map, and brief characterization. Mali, Banda, Chifundera, Badjedjea, Sebe, Lokasola, Ewango, Tungaluna, and Akaibe, 2019, Am. J. Zool., 2: 38–43, reported the species from the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, northeastern Dem. Rep. Congo, but this identification requires confirmation. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 390–391, provided brief accounts, photographs, and range maps for nominal Amnirana albolabris, but also for Amnirana sp. 'albolabris West' (their West African White-lipped Frog; now either or both Amnirana fonensis or Amnirana parva) for the west-of-Benin population. On pp. 392–393, these authors provided an account for nominal Amnirana longipes. See brief account, photographs, 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, who noted that Equatorial Guinea contained at least two lineages under this name. Ernst, Lautenschläger, Branquima, and Hölting, 2020, Zoosyst. Evol., 96: 256, noted the presence in Uigé Province, northwestern Angola. Ayoro, Segniagbeto, Hema, Penner, Oueda, Dubois, Rödel, Kabré, and Ohler, 2020, Zoosystema, 42: 547–582, discussed records, identification, and habitat in Burkina Faso (likely assignable to Amnirana fonensis). Kanga, Kouamé, Zogbass, Gongomin, Agoh, Kouamé, Konan, Adepo-Gourène, Gourène, and Rödel, 2021, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 15: 71–107, commented on conservation status, systematics identification, range, and habitat on the Ivory Coast side of Mont Nimba, noting that an unnamed lineage is found in Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso (possibly Amnirana parva and/or Amnirana fonensis). Kako-Wanzalire, Mongo, Ilonga, Mapoli, Mbumba, Neema, Tungaluna, Itoka, and Bogaert, 2021, Tropicultura, 39 (1: 1709): 1–19, briefly discussed habitat preference in north-central and northeastern Dem. Rep. Congo. Oussou, Assemian, Kouadio, and Tiédoué , 2022, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 16 (1, e298): 1–13, noted an unnamed species (likely now Amnirana parva), similar to Amnirana albolabris, in Tai National Park, southwestern Ivory Coast. Badjedjea, Masudi, Akaibe, and Gvoždík, 2022, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 16 (1: e301): 62, commented on a population of Amnirana cf. albolabris from the Kokolopori Bonobo Nature Reserve, Tshuapa Province, Dem. Rep. Congo. Dehling and Sinsch, 2023, Diversity, 15 (512): 1–81, discussed the range, identification, natural history, and conservation status in Rwanda. Larson and Zimkus, 2023, Afr. J. Herpetol., 72: 73–80, provided a detailed description of tadpole morphology from southeastern Gabon. Olofindji, Ales, and Sogbohossou, 2024, Herpetol. Notes, 17: 483–489, reported the species from the Sitatunga Valley of southern Benin. Leaché, Oaks, Ofori-Boateng, and Fujita, 2024, Evolution, 74: 716–724, discussed comparative phylogeography across the Dahomey Gap in Ghana. Spawls, Mazuch, and Mohammad, 2023, Handb. Amph. Rept. NE Afr.: 119–120, provided an account addressing identification, natural history, conservation status, and range in South Sudan, including a dot map.  

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• 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.