Leptopelis boulengeri (Werner, 1898)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Arthroleptidae > Subfamily: Leptopelinae > Genus: Leptopelis > Species: Leptopelis boulengeri

Hylambates rufus var. boulengeri Werner, 1898, Verh. Zool. Bot. Ges. Wien, 48: 197. Holotype: ZMB 13916, according to Laurent, 1985, in Frost (ed.), Amph. Species World: 228; ZMB 13916 designated lectotype, apparently in error, by Perret, 1962, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 65: 240, inasmuch as this specimen comes from a locality other than the stated type locality (see comment below). Type locality: "Victoria [now Limbé], Kamerun".

Leptopelis boulengeriAhl, 1929, Sitzungsber. Ges. Naturforsch. Freunde Berlin, 1929: 209; Ahl, 1931, Das Tierreich, 55: 242.

Leptopelis poensis Ahl, 1929, Sitzungsber. Ges. Naturforsch. Freunde Berlin, 1929: 209. Syntypes: ZMB (4 specimens) unnumbered according to the original publication; ZMB 20053 (4 specimens), according to XXX. Type locality: "Fernando Po" (= Bioko, Equatorial Guinea). Synonymy by Perret, 1962, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 65: 240.

Leptopelis violescens Ahl, 1929, Sitzungsber. Ges. Naturforsch. Freunde Berlin, 1929: 201. Holotype: ZMB unnumbered according to the original publication; ZMB 20054, according to XXX. Type locality: "Makomo, Spanisch-Guinea", Equatorial Guinea. Synonymy by Perret, 1962, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 65: 240.

Leptopelis flaviventer Ahl, 1929, Sitzungsber. Ges. Naturforsch. Freunde Berlin, 1929: 210. Holotype: ZMB unnumbered, according to the original publication. Type locality: "Kamerun". Synonymy by Perret, 1962, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 65: 240.

English Names

Victoria Forest Treefrog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 69).

Boulenger's Tree Frog (Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 216).

Distribution

Rainforests from southeastern Nigeria through southern Cameroon, Gabon, Rep. Congo, and Dem. Rep. Congo; Bioko I. (Equatorial Guinea); likely to occur in southwestern Central African Republic and Cabinda enclave, Angola.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Cameroon, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Congo, Republic of the, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria

Likely/Controversially Present: Angola, Central African Republic

Comment

There is some confusion as to the status of the holotype although only one specimen is noted in the original description, it reportedly being from Victoria, Cameroon. Nevertheless, by museum records, two examples of the "type" series of Leptopelis boulengeri were labeled "Typus": ZMB 20049 (from Fernando Po) (which was designated lectotype by Perret, 1962, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 65: 240) and ZMB 13916 (from Victoria, Cameroon). Laurent, 1985, in Frost (ed.), Amph. Species World: 228, regarded ZMB 20049 as Werner's holotype (the only specimen from the stated type locality), and therefore regarded Perret's lectotype designation as invalid. See comment under Leptopelis occidentalis. See account by Laurent, 1973, Ann. Mus. R. Afr. Cent., Tervuren, Ser. Octavo, Sci. Zool., 202: 54-56. De la Riva, 1994, Rev. Esp. Herpetol., 8: 130, provided a record for Equatorial Guinea. Lasso, Rial, Castroviejo, and De la Riva, 2002, Graellsia, 58: 21-34, provided notes on ecological distribution in Equatorial Guinea. Schiøtz, 1963, Vidensk. Medd. Dansk Naturhist. Foren., 125: 86, provided records for Nigeria. See account for Cameroon by Amiet, 2012, Rainettes Cameroun: 472-478. Schiøtz, 1999, Treefrogs Afr.: 259–260, provided an account and map. Barej, Pfalzgraff, Hirschfeld, Liedtke, Penner, Gonwouo, Dahmen, Grözinger, Schmitz, and Rödel, 2015, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 9(2, Spec. Section): 56–84, reported on larval morphology. Baptista, Conradie, Vaz Pinto, and Branch, 2019, In Huntley, Russo, Lages, and Ferrand (eds.), Biodiversity in Angola: 258, doubted that this species will be found in Angola. Dewynter and Frétey, 2019, Cah. Fondation Biotope, 27: 12, summarized the literature for Gabon and provided photographs (p. 48). Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 216–217, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. See brief account, range map, and photographs for Equatorial Guinea in Sánchez-Vialas, Calvo-Revuelta, Castroviejo-Fisher, and De la Riva, 2020, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 66: 137–230. 

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