Capensibufo Grandison, 1980

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Bufonidae > Genus: Capensibufo

Capensibufo Grandison, 1980, Bull. Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.), Zool., 39: 294. Type species: Bufo tradouwi Hewitt, 1926, by original designation.

English Names

Cape Toads (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 44).

Mountain Toadlets (Du Preez and Carruthers, 2009, Compl. Guide Frogs S. Afr.: 184).

Distribution

Breede River to north of Knysna, Western Cape Province, Rep. South Africa.

Comment

See Grandison, 1981, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Suppl., 15: 187-215, and Grandison, 1980, Bull. Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.), Zool., 39: 293-298, for a discussion of the phylogenetic relationships of this genus. 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: 129, suggested on the basis of DNA sequence evidence that Capensibufo is monophyletic and the sister taxon of an African group composed of Poytonophrynus, Mertensophryne, and Amietophrynus. Tandy and Keith, 1972, in Blair (ed.), Evol. Genus Bufo: 158, suggested that the two species in this taxon belonged to different species groups of Bufo (Bufo rosei in the Bufo rosei group related to the Bufo taitanus complex, and Bufo tradouwi in the Bufo angusticeps group). Graybeal and Cannatella, 1995, Herpetologica, 51: 121, suggested that additional support was needed to substantiated the monophyly of this taxon. See Branch, 1990, J. Herpetol. Assoc. Afr., 37: 20. Smith and Chiszar, 2006, Herpetol. Conserv. Biol., 1: 6-8, implied that this taxon should be considered a subgenus of Bufo; see comment under Bufonidae. Du Preez and Carruthers, 2009, Compl. Guide Frogs S. Afr.: 184-189, provided a key and species accounts for the species. Van Bocxlaer, Loader, Roelants, Biju, Menegon, and Bossuyt, 2010, Science, 327: 679-682, found Capensibufo to be phylogenetically isolated but still possibly the sister taxon of Vandijkophrynus, but more definitely in a group composed to Vandijkophrynus, Mertensophryne, and Poytonophrynus. Tolley, de Villiers, Cherry, and Measey, 2010, Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 100: 822-834, reported on genetic variation among populations and suggested that the current two-species taxonomy is inadequate to description the lineage diversity. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543-583, in their study of Genbank sequences, confirmed the monophyly of this taxon and its placement as the sister taxon of Amietophrynus.

Contained taxa

Capensibufo rosei (Hewitt, 1926)
Capensibufo tradouwi (Hewitt, 1926)

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