A type catalogue of the reed frogs (Amphibia, Anura, Hyperoliidae) in the collection of the Museum fuer Naturkunde Berlin (ZMB) with comments on historical collectors and expeditions
Author
Tillack, Frank
Museum fuer Naturkunde Berlin, Leibniz-Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Invalidenstrasse 43, 10115 Berlin, Germany
Author
Ruiter, Ronald de
Nederlands Openluchtmuseum, Hoeferlaan 4, 6816 SG Arnhem, The Netherlands
Author
Roedel, Mark-Oliver
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1666-195X
Museum fuer Naturkunde Berlin, Leibniz-Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Invalidenstrasse 43, 10115 Berlin, Germany
mo.roedel@mfn-berlin.de
text
Zoosystematics and Evolution
2021
2021-08-10
97
2
407
450
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zse.97.68000
journal article
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zse.97.68000
1860-0743-2-407
DC2EBA6293A141938ADC2A79F7D658B9
9446F0CE40A752B4897F7B7B71BBFD29
Hyperolius acuticephalus Ahl, 1931a: 131.
Holotype.
ZMB 30999; "Ngoto, Lobajegebiet" [
Kembe
, Basse-Kotto Prefecture, Central African Republic]; coll.
Guenther
Theodor Tessmann, 30.X.1913.
Present name.
Hyperolius acuticephalus
Ahl, 1931.
Remarks.
Depicted in
Ahl (1931b
: 419, fig. 291). The German botanist, ethnologist and explorer Tessmann travelled to Cameroon in 1904, where he worked until 1905 for the West African plantation company Bibundi as a supervisor on a cocoa plantation. Afterwards he travelled to the Cameroon Hinterland [
'Hinterland'
is a term in the colonial literature, used in various languages; it does not specify a specific geographic region but refers generally to regions being away from the coast or provincial towns] and to
Yaounde
and founded his own plantation in the border area between German-Cameroon and Spanish-Guinea. From 1907 to 1909 he was the head of the
"Luebecker
Pangwe-Expedition" to South Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea and in 1913 he led an expedition to "Neu Kamerun". During the First World War he fled to Spanish Guinea and was interned by the Spanish on Fernando
Po
[Bioko]. Later, he turned to South America, travelled through Peru, and emigrated to Brazil in 1936, where he settled in the state of
Parana
and got a position at the Museu Paranaense. During his stay in Africa he collected large numbers of zoological, botanical and ethnological objects, most of which were sent to the museums in Berlin and
Luebeck
(
Dinslage and Templin 2012
;
Dinslage 2015
;
Templin 2015
).
Hyperolius acuticephalus
could be conspecific with either
H. igbettensis
Schiotz
, 1963 or
H. adsperus
Peters, 1877. Type locality and shape of head better fit
H. igebettensis
(fide
Channing et al. 2013
); concerning webbing of feet
H. acuticephalus
is intermediate between
H. igbettensis
and
H. adspersus
(fide
Channing et al. 2013
); the ratio of head width/snout-vent length speaks in favor of
H. adspersus
(fide
Amiet 2012
); and the ratio of head length/head width points again to
H. igbettensis
(fide
Amiet 2012
); finally the value for the length of the snout/head width surpasses both
H. igebettensis
and
H. adspersus
.