Amietia wittei (Angel, 1924)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Pyxicephalidae > Subfamily: Cacosterninae > Genus: Amietia > Species: Amietia wittei

Phrynobatrachus Wittei Angel, 1924, Bull. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. Paris, 30: 130. Holotype: MNHNP 1924.15, according to Guibé, 1950 "1948", Cat. Types Amph. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat.: 40. Type locality: "Molo, station de l'Ouganda railway, située près du sommet du Maü escarpment (versant oreintal), altitude 2,080 mètres", Kenya.

Rana (Rana) witteiGuibé, 1950 "1948", Cat. Types Amph. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat.: 34; Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 42.

Rana (Afrana) witteiDubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 334.

Afrana witteiVisser and Channing, 1997, J. Afr. Zool., 111: 192, by implication.

Amietia witteiFrost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, de Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green, and Wheeler, 2006, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 297: 240, by implication.

English Names

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

De Witte's River Frog (Channing, Dehling, Lötters, and Ernst, 2016, Zootaxa, 4155: 55). 

Distribution

Central and western Kenya between 1200 and 3500 m,  and south to Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania between 1100–1900 m; northeastern Dem. Rep. Congo (see comment).  

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda

Comment

Prior to the revision of Frost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, de Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green, and Wheeler, 2006, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 297, placed in the Section Strongylopus, subgenus Afrana of Rana of Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 334. The species is not yet well defined according to Perret, 1985, in Frost (ed.), Amph. Species WorldJ: 520. Pickersgill, 2007, Frog Search: 73-74, provided an account as Rana witteiChanning, Rödel, and Channing, 2012, Tadpoles of Africa: 328–329, provided information on comparative larval morphology. Larson, Castro, Behangana, and Greenbaum, 2016, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 99: 168–181, discussed the systematics of the species and noted that there is no evidence for its range extending outside of Kenya and adjacent northern Tanzania. See account by Channing, Dehling, Lötters, and Ernst, 2016, Zootaxa, 4155: 55–56. Spawls, Wasonga, and Drewes, 2019, Amph. Kenya: 33, provided a range map for Kenya, photograph, and brief characterization. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 358–359, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Mali, Laudisoit, Yendema, Badjedjea, Mukobya, Ewango, Katuala, Akaibe, Bongo, Anio, Ngbolua, and Tungaluna, 2019, Asian J. Res. Zool., 2(4): 1–11, reported specimens so identified from the Lendu Plateau of northeastern Dem. Rep. Congo; this identification requires confirmation.

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