Arthroleptis Smith, 1849

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Arthroleptidae > Subfamily: Arthroleptinae > Genus: Arthroleptis

Arthroleptis Smith, 1849, Illust. Zool. S. Afr., 3 (Appendix): 24. Type species: Arthroleptis wahlbergii Smith, 1849, by monotypy.

Schoutedenella De Witte, 1921, Rev. Zool. Afr., 9: 19. Type species: Schoutedenella globosa De Witte, 1921, by monotypy. Synonymy by Loveridge, 1957, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 117: 350; Schmidt and Inger, 1959, Explor. Parc Natl. Upemba, Miss. G.F. de Witte, 56: 123; Poynton, 1964, Ann. Natal Mus., 17: 159; Poynton, 1976, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 90: 215-220; Poynton and Broadley, 1985, Ann. Natal Mus., 26: 535-536; and 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: 336.

Abroscaphus Laurent, 1941 "1940", Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 34: 82. Type species: Arthroleptis adolfifriederici Nieden, 1911 "1910", by original designation. Proposed as a subgenus of Arthroleptis. Distinctiveness from Arthroleptis sensu stricto rejected by Laurent, 1961, Publ. Univ. Elisabethville, 1: 201.

Coracodichus Laurent, 1941 "1940", Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 34: 85. Type species: Arthroleptis whytii Boulenger, 1897, by original designation. Proposed as a subgenus of Arthroleptis, although not generally accepted by subsequent authors.

Arthroleptulus Laurent, 1941 "1940", Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 34: 87. Type species: Arthroleptis xenodactylus Boulenger, 1909, by subsequent designation of Dubois, 1981, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Suppl., 15: 260. Proposed as a subgenus of Arthroleptis.

English Names

Squeaking Frogs (Broadley, 1971, Puku, 6: 118).

Humus Frogs (Van Dijk, 1978, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 17: 16).

Squeakers (Passmore and Carruthers, 1979, S. Afr. Frogs: 204; Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 41; Du Preez and Carruthers, 2009, Compl. Guide Frogs S. Afr.: 80).

Bush Squeakers (Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 112).

Screeching Frogs (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 36).

Distribution

Tropical Africa.

Comment

In Arthroleptini 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: 234. Laurent, 1954, Ann. Mus. R. Congo Belge, Tervuren, Ser. Quarto, Sci. Zool., 1: 34, modified de Witte's original diagnosis of Schoutedenella to include a number of species formerly included within Arthroleptis. Subsequent authors (e.g., Loveridge, 1957, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 117: 350; Schmidt and Inger, 1959, Explor. Parc Natl. Upemba, Miss. G.F. de Witte, 56: 123; and Poynton, 1964, Ann. Natal Mus., 17: 159, Poynton, 1976, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 90: 215-220, Poynton and Broadley, 1985, Ann. Natal Mus., 26: 535-536, and Poynton, 2003, Afr. J. Herpetol., 52: 49-51) considered Schoutedenella to be synonymous with Arthroleptis. Laurent, 1961, Publ. Univ. Elisabethville, 1: 200, and Laurent, 1973, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 87: 666-678, maintained that Schoutedenella (sensu Laurent, not de Witte) was valid, noting that to merge Schoutedenella with Arthroleptis would make Arthroleptis paraphyletic, inasmuch as he posited that Schoutedenella is more closely related to Cardioglossa than to Arthroleptis. Nevertheless, molecular evidence suggests strongly that Schoutedenella is paraphyletic with respect to Arthroleptis, and on this basis 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: 234, placed Schoutedenella in the synonymy of Arthroleptis. Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 49-55, provided a key and accounts for the species of southern and central Africa. Zimkus and Blackburn, 2008, Breviora, 513: 1-12, discussed the identification of Arthroleptis with respect to Phrynobatrachus (Phrynobatrachidae) and provided a morphological data matrix for the species of Arthroleptis. Blackburn, 2008, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 49: 806-826, discussed mtDNA phylogenetics of the taxon. Du Preez and Carruthers, 2009, Compl. Guide Frogs S. Afr.: 80-87, provided brief accounts and keys to the species of southern Africa. Mercurio, 2011, Amph. Malawi: 75-93, provided accounts and an identification key for Malawi.

Contained taxa

External Links

Please note: these links will take you to external websites not affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History. We are not responsible for their content.

For additional sources of information from other sites search Google
For images search Arkive, CalPhoto Images and Google Images
To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank

Amphibian Species of the World 5.6, an Online Reference