Xenopus laevis (Daudin, 1802)

Conradie, Werner, Bittencourt-Silva, Gabriela B., Engelbrecht, Hanlie M., Loader, Simon P., Menegon, Michele, Nanvonamuquitxo, Cristovao, Scott, Michael & Tolley, Krystal A., 2016, Exploration into the hidden world of Mozambique's sky island forests: new discoveries of reptiles and amphibians, Zoosystematics and Evolution 92 (2), pp. 163-180 : 168

Xenopus laevis (Daudin, 1802)

Material

Mt. Mabu ( PEM A11291 , female, 45.8 mm SUL) .

Comments

One specimen was collected from a low-elevation stream below an old hydroelectricity dam. Poynton and Broadley (1991) report no records of Xenopus laevis for northern Mozambique, but do report it from southern Malawi. The Malawi population has been confirmed by molecular analyses to be Xenopus laevis ( Furman et al. 2015). On the other hand, Xenopus muelleri is common in lowland Mozambique. Ohler and Frétey (2014) reported the first record of Xenopus petersii for Mozambique. Based on a low number of plaques (17 plaques around the eye and 20 from eye to vent) their assignment of the specimen to Xenopus petersii is doubtful and most likely represents Xenopus laevis (which shows the same level of variation in plaque counts).