Tomopterna elegans (Calabresi, 1927)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Pyxicephalidae > Subfamily: Cacosterninae > Genus: Tomopterna > Species: Tomopterna elegans

Arthroleptis elegans Calabresi, 1927, Atti Soc. Ital. Sci. Nat. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Milano, 66: 16. Syntypes: MZUF (4 specimens); MZUF 1116 designated lectotype by Lanza, 1978, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Suppl., 10: 240. Type locality: "Hongolò (Uadi Hoor)", Somalia. See discussion of types by Blackburn and Scali, 2014, Herpetol. Monogr., 28: 33–34l.

Phrynobatrachus elegansLaurent, 1941, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 34: 207.

Tomopterna elegansZimkus and Larson, 2011, Zootaxa, 2933: 27.

English Names

Elegant Sand Frog (Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 380).

Distribution

Northeastern Somalia. See comment. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Somalia

Endemic: Somalia

Comment

See Largen, 2001, Tropical Zool., 14: 330-331, for comments on distribution in Ethiopia and Eritrea (prior to recognition of Tomopterna elegans; use caution in interpretation).Removed from the synonymy of Tomopterna cryptotis by Zimkus and Larson, 2011, Zootaxa, 2933: 27-45, where it had been placed by Lanza, 1978, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Suppl., 10: 240. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 380–381, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. See Lanza, 1981, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Suppl., 15: 168, for Somali populations (as Tomopterna cryptotis) for account; given that Tomopterna elegans is known definitely only from northeastern Somalia and Lanza mapped nominal Tomopterna cryptotis all the way to the Kenya line, caution is warranted in interpretation of this paper.

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