Amphibians of Kokolopori: an introduction to the amphibian fauna of the Central Congolian Lowland Forests, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Author
Badjedjea, Gabriel
Department of Aquatic Ecology, Biodiversity Monitoring Center, University of Kisangani, Kisangani, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
Author
Masudi, Franck M.
Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Biodiversity Monitoring Center, University of Kisangani, Kisangani, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
Author
Akaibe, Benjamin Dudu
Faculty of Sciences, University of Kisangani, Kisangani, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
Author
Gvoždík, Václav
Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, CZECH REPUBLIC & National Museum, Department of Zoology, Prague, CZECH REPUBLIC
text
Amphibian & Reptile Conservation
2022
e 301
2022-02-14
16
1
35
70
journal article
299970
10.5281/zenodo.12761585
dda4c870-f243-4496-aecb-9618989ad741
1525-9153
12761585
Hyperolius ocellatus purpurescens
Laurent, 1943
Fig.
9F.
Area:
Yetee.
Season/survey:
Dry (
Aug 2019
).
Material:
CSB:Herp:
RNBK
611, 612, 694, 695–697.
Comments:
This species was recorded only once near Yalokenge village in pristine forest, in a partially open swampy zone at the edge of a stream.
Five males
were found sitting on vegetation, and not calling. The only female was discovered well hidden in vegetation, far from the place where the males aggregated.
Schiøtz (2006)
also recorded “only few specimens” in small forest swamps in Kokolopori, and described their coloration. This is a sexually dichromatic species (
Portik et al. 2019
) with green males that have a silvery white triangle on the snout and white dorsolateral stripes. The female (
Fig. 9F
) has the color pattern corresponding to the subspecies
H. o. purpurescens
originally described from the southeast of Kisangani (
Laurent 1943
) [
type
locality of the nominotypical subspecies was restricted to Bioko Island,
Equatorial Guinea
]. A phylogeographic study suggested a complex pattern of genetic variation with the eastern Congolian populations differentiated to some level (samples from Kokolopori were not included;
Bell et al. 2017
).
Hyperolius hildebrandti
Ahl, 1931
(
type
locality “
Kamerun
;”
Ahl 1931
) may be an older available name for populations from the Congolian forests. Whether this taxon deserves full species status remains to be evaluated.