Hymenochirus boettgeri (Tornier, 1896)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Pipidae > Subfamily: Dactylethrinae > Genus: Hymenochirus > Species: Hymenochirus boettgeri

Xenopus boettgeri Tornier, 1896, in Möbius (ed.), Deutsch Ost-Afr., 3: 163. Holotype: ZMB 11521 according to Bauer, Günther, and Robeck, 1996, Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin, 72: 270. Type locality: "Ituri-Fähre bei Wandesoma", Dem. Rep. Congo.

Hymenochirus boettgeriBoulenger, 1896, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 6, 18: 420.

Hymenochirus boettgeri boettgeriPerret and Mertens, 1957, Bull. Inst. Franç. Afr. Noire, Ser. A, 19: 552.

Hymenochirus boettgeri camerunensis Perret and Mertens, 1957, Bull. Inst. Franç. Afr. Noire, Ser. A, 19: 552. Holotype: SMF 52300, by original designation. Type locality: "Foulassi", 6 km northwest of Sangmelima, Cameroon.

English Names

Zaire Dwarf Clawed Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 96).

Boettger's Dwarf Clawed Frog ( Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 40).

Distribution

Southern Nigeria and Cameroon and through the Zaire Basin to eastern Dem. Rep. Congo and Gabon and Equatorial Guinea; expected in Rep. Congo and the Cabinda enclave of Angola.

Geographic Occurrence

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

Likely/Controversially Present: Angola, Congo, Republic of the

Comment

Perret and Mertens, 1957, Bull. Inst. Franç. Afr. Noire, Ser. A, 19: 552, distinguished the subspecies Hymenochirus boettgeri boettgeri and Hymenochirus boettgeri camerunensis, closely related to Hymenochirus feae. See also account in Perret, 1966, Zool. Jahrb., Jena, Abt. Syst., 93: 305-308. Lasso, Rial, Castroviejo, and De la Riva, 2002, Graellsia, 58: 21-34, provided notes on ecological distribution in Equatorial Guinea. Channing, Rödel, and Channing, 2012, Tadpoles of Africa: 286–287, provided information on comparative larval morphology. Frétey, Dewynter, and Blanc, 2011, Clé de détermination, Amph. Afri. Centr. Angola: 1–232, provided a key for identification. Mezzasalma, Glaw, Odierna, Petraccioli, and Guarino, 2015, Zool. Anz., 258: 47–53, reported on the karyology of Pseudhymenochirus merlini and Hymenochirus boettgeri as part of a general discussion of karyological evolution in the family. Dewynter, Chirio, Melki, Cordier, and Frétey, 2017, Cah. Fondation Biotope, 11: 14, provided a brief account and photographs of Hymenochirus cf. boettgeri from the Mount Koumouna-Bouali area of Gabon.  Dewynter and Frétey, 2019, Cah. Fondation Biotope, 27: 34, summarized the literature for Gabon (of Hymenochirus cf. boettgeri) and provided photographs (p. 63). Mali, Banda, Chifundera, Badjedjea, Sebe, Lokasola, Ewango, Tungaluna, and Akaibe, 2019, Am. J. Zool., 2: 38–43, reported the species from the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, northeastern Dem. Rep. Congo. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 40–41, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. See brief account and range map for Equatorial Guinea in Sánchez-Vialas, Calvo-Revuelta, Castroviejo-Fisher, and De la Riva, 2020, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 66: 137–230. Badjedjea, Masudi, Akaibe, and Gvoždík, 2022, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 16 (1: e301): 59, commented on a population of Hymenochirus cf. boettgeri from the Kokolopori Bonobo Nature Reserve, Tshuapa Province, Dem. Rep. Congo, and the taxonomic questions raised by these specimens. Figueroa, Low, and Lim, 2023, Zootaxa, 5287: 242, noted that his species has no established populations in Singapore.  

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