Hyperolius pygmaeus Ahl, 1931a: 22.

Tillack, Frank, Ruiter, Ronald de & Roedel, Mark-Oliver, 2021, 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, Zoosystematics and Evolution 97 (2), pp. 407-450 : 407

Hyperolius pygmaeus Ahl, 1931a: 22.

Holotype.

ZMB 36102, “Tanga” [Tanga Region, Tanzania], coll. Georg Martienssen.

Present name.

Afrixalus stuhlmanni (Pfeffer, 1893).

Remarks.

Drawing in Ahl (1931b: 273, fig. 143). Hyperolius pygmaeus Ahl, 1931a, is a junior homonym of Hyperolius pygmaeus Meyer, 1875 (= Litoria pygmaea ).

Between December 1896 and June 1899, the German planter Martienssen sent amphibians and reptiles from the German colony in East Africa to ZMB. The locality “Tanga” as given by Ahl (1931a) most likely refers to today’s Tanga region. It is clear from Martienssen’s correspondence with ZMB that the amphibians he sent to Berlin were collected, with few exceptions (e.g. Ukami), exclusively in “Magrotto” [plantation in southern part of Mlinga Mountains, East Usambara, Tanga Region] and "Plantation Schöller” [Bondei County near Ngomeni, east of the Mlinga Mountains, ca. 25 km SW of Tanga town] (see Gvoždík et al. 2014). Martienssen also supported the African expedition to Kilimanjaro undertaken by Yngve Sjöstedt from 1905-1906 by providing porters ( Sjöstedt 1910: 3). The correspondence between Martienssen and the ZMB curators (especially Gustav Tornier), kept in the archives of the Historical Department at ZMB, reveals that “Laubfrösche” [Tree frogs, Hyperolius spp. (s. l.)] sent by Martienssen to ZMB were all collected on the “Magrotto” plantation between 17 April and 18 May 1897.