Hoplobatrachus occipitalis (Günther, 1858)
Rana occipitalis Günther, 1858, Arch. Naturgesch., 24: 320. Syntypes: BMNH (12 specimens) implied by Günther, 1859 "1858", Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus.: 130. Type locality: "West-Afrika"; given as "West Africa", "Africa", and "Gambia" by Günther, 1859 "1858", Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus.: 130.
Rana bragantina Bocage, 1864, Rev. Mag. Zool., Paris, Ser. 2, 16: 253. Holotype: Not stated, presumably MBL, but considered lost by Perret, 1976, Arq. Mus. Bocage, Ser. 2, 6: 19, and, if it was extant in 1976, it would have been destroyed in 1978 fire. Type locality: "Angola (Afrique occidentale).—District du Duque de Bragança". Synonymy by Günther, 1867, Zool. Rec., 3: 129; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 27; Bocage, 1895, Herpetol. Angola Congo: 155.
Rana (Fejervarya) occipitalis — Bolkay, 1915, Anat. Anz., 48: 172.
Rana tigrina var. occipitalis — Boulenger, 1918, Rec. Indian Mus., 15: 58.
Rana (Rana) tigrina occipitalis — Chabanaud, 1921, Bull. Com. Études Hist. Scient. Afr. Occid. Franç., 1921: 450.
Ranosoma schereri Ahl, 1924, Arch. Naturgesch., Abt. A,, 90: 250. Holotype: ZMB unnumbered according to the original publication. Type locality: "Senegal". Synonymy by Barbour and Loveridge, 1930, in Strong (ed.), Afr. Rep. Liberia Belgian Congo, 2: 778.
Rana occipitalis — Noble, 1924, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 49: 212-213. Parker, 1936, Zool. Meded., Leiden, 19: 89.
Rana mwanzae Loveridge, 1925, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1925: 772. Syntypes: MCZ 10337-78, by original desgination. Type locality: "a pool in the otherwise dry bed of the Simiyu River at Sagayo, Mwanza, Tanganyika Territory", Tanzania. Synonymy by Barbour and Loveridge, 1929, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 69: 330.
Rana (Rana) occipitalis — De Witte, 1930, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 19: 259.
Rana esculenta bilmaensis Angel, 1936, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 61: 277. Holotype: MNHNP 1936.123 according to Böhme, 1978, Rev. Suisse Zool., 85: 642. Type locality: "l’oasis de Bilma", Nigeria. Synonymy by Böhme, 1978, Rev. Suisse Zool., 85: 641-644.
Dicroglossus occipitalis — Deckert, 1938, Sitzungsber. Ges. Naturforsch. Freunde Berlin, 1938: 138. Laurent, 1954, Publ. Cult. Companhia Diamantes Angola, 23: 133 (14 of preprint).
Rana (Dicroglossus) occipitalis — De Witte, 1952, Result. Sci., Explor. Hydrobiol. Lac Tanganyika (1946-47), 3: 5.
Rana (Euphlyctis) occipitalis — Dubois, 1981, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Suppl., 15: 240.
Euphlyctis occipitalis — Poynton and Broadley, 1985, Ann. Natal Mus., 27: 125. Largen, 2001, Tropical Zool., 14: 328.
Limnonectes (Hoplobatrachus) occipitalis — Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 61.
Hoplobatrachus occipitalis — Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 315.
English Names
African Tigrine Frog (Cochran, 1961, Living Amph. World: 153).
Giant Swamp Frog (Broadley, 1971, Puku, 6: 113).
Ethiopia Peters Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 99).
Crowned Bullfrog (Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 295).
Groove-crowned Bullfrog (Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 126; Barnett, Emms, and Santoni, 2001, Herpetol. Bull., London, 77: 8).
Eastern Groove-crowned Bullfrog (Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 268; Lötters, Wagner, Bwong, Schick, Malonza, Muchai, Wasonga, and Veith, 2007, Fieldguide Amph. Rept. Kakamega Forest: 26).
African Groove-crowned Frog (Largen and Spawls, 2010, Amph. Rept. Ethiopia Eritrea: 158).
Distribution
Gambia and extreme southeastern Western Sahara to western Ethiopia (including isolated populations in southwestern Libya, Air mountains of Niger, northern Mali), south through subsaharan Africa to northern Zambia, northwestern Angola, and western Rep. Congo.
Comment
Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 315 (following Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 61), placed this in the Hoplobatrachus occipitalis group. Composed of two sibling species, according to Bogart and Tandy, 1976, Science, 193: 334-335, one of which, in Liberia, is tetraploid. See Salvador, 1996, Smithson. Herpetol. Inform. Serv., 109, for account. See Geniez, Mateo, and Bons, 2001 "2000", Herpetozoa, 13: 152, for Western Sahara record. Rödel, 2000, Herpetofauna W. Afr., 1: 145-152, Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 296-297, Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 268-270, Pickersgill, 2007, Frog Search: 111-112, and Lötters, Wagner, Bwong, Schick, Malonza, Muchai, Wasonga, and Veith, 2007, Fieldguide Amph. Rept. Kakamega Forest: 26-27, provided accounts. Padial and De la Riva, 2004, Rev. Esp. Herpetol., 18: 93, provided records from Mauritania. Schiøtz, 1963, Vidensk. Medd. Dansk Naturhist. Foren., 125: 25-26, provided records for Nigeria. Emms, Jambang, Bah, Mankali, Rödel, and Barnett, 2005, Herpetol. Bull., London, 94: 6-16, provided records for Gambia. Geniez, Mateo, Geniez, and Pether, 2004, Amph. Rept. W. Sahara: 42, provided a brief account for Western Sahara. Jackson and Blackburn, 2007, Salamandra, 43: 149-164, provided a record for Nouabale-Ndoki National Park, Rep. Congo. Jacobsen, 2009, Afr. Herp News, 47: 2-20, reported this species from east-north-central Central African Republic. See account, photograph, and map for Ethiopia by Largen and Spawls, 2010, Amph. Rept. Ethiopia Eritrea: 157-158.
External Links
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- To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
- For information aggregation from other sites and some original accounts see AmphibiaWeb report
- For further information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
- For related information on conservation and images as well as observation see iNaturalist;
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