Capensibufo rosei (Hewitt, 1926)

Channing, A., Measey, G. J., De Villiers, A. L., Turner, A. A. & Tolley, K. A., 2017, Taxonomy of the Capensibufo rosei group (Anura: Bufonidae) from South Africa, Zootaxa 4232 (2), pp. 282-292 : 288

Capensibufo rosei (Hewitt, 1926)

Material examined. PEM A5132, Muizenberg Mountains (lectotype) (Conradie et al. 2015) (the original description did not specify a holotype) ; PEM A5134–39, SAM 4261 Silvermine River Valley or Muizenberg Mountains ; SAM 50008–9 Silvermine Plateau ; SAM 17858, SAM 43270, SAM 43812, Table Mountain ; SAM 50010–2 Olifantsbos ; SAM 50004–7 2.5 km ESE Kommetjie .

GenBank sequences. FN652340 –41, FN650136 – 7, Silvermine ( Tolley et al. 2010); HG321460 –69, HG321470 – 82, Silvermine and Cape of Good Hope ( Cressey et al. 2014); and an additional 16S sequence KF665475 , Steenberg Plateau (Silvermine) ( Liedtke et al. 2016).

Diagnosis. There is no tympanum in C. rosei , which distinguishes it from C. tradouwi and C. deceptus . In preservative, the dorsal spots in C. rosei have a brown centre, surrounded by incomplete dark rings. Capensibufo deceptus and C. tradouwi lack a thin outer white ring. Capensibufo magistratus and C. selenophos have incomplete black rings with a thin white outer ring. The umbraculum is rounded, while C. deceptus and C. magistratus have angular umbracula. The parotid is widest in the anterior third, which distinguishes it from C. magistratus , C. selenophos and C. tradouwi . There is usually no vertebral stripe in C. rosei while the other species have thin to broad pale vertebral stripes and/or bands. The belly is immaculate to lightly speckled, while C. tradouwi has flecks on the belly that may fuse to form short lines; C. magistratus and C. selenophos have white spots on a darker background. The ratio of parotid length/SUL is over 0.18, which distinguishes it from C. tradouwi , which has a ratio less than 0.18. The intraspecific uncorrected p distances for 16S are 0–0.4 (n=12), and 2.6–4.0 between C. rosei and the other three species previously included in this species, and 2.4–4.5 from C. tradouwi ( Table 1 ). In life the frogs are sometimes very dark, and pattern elements are difficult to discern.

Advertisement call. This species has no advertisement call and makes no distress call when disturbed.

Distribution. This species is limited to the Cape Peninsula, currently known only from both the Silvermine and Cape of Good Hope sections of the Table Mountain National Park. No specimens have been found on Table Mountain itself since 1983 ( Cressey et al. 2014). DNA sequences were available from Silvermine and Cape of Good Hope, and museum material was examined from Table Mountain, the Muizenberg Mountains (Silvermine), and the " Cape Peninsula" ( Fig. 1 ).

Remarks. The distribution of this species was previously thought to extend to the mountains west of the Breede River Valley ( Grandison 1980). Here we restrict it to the Cape Peninsula, from Table Mountain to the Cape of Good Hope ( Fig. 1 ).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Map of the south-western Cape, South Africa, showing the distribution of the material examined. Symbols: Capensibufo deceptus — green triangles; C. magistratus – blue circles; C. rosei — violet diamonds, C. selenophos — red squares. Mountains are indicated in brown, cities and towns in grey. The distribution of C. tradouwi falls outside the boundaries of the map.