Hyperolius bangwae Perret, 1966

Channing, Alan, 2022, Colour patterns to sequences: a perspective on the systematics of the Hyperolius viridiflavus group (Anura: Hyperoliidae) using mitochondrial DNA, Zootaxa 5134 (3), pp. 301-354 : 338

Hyperolius bangwae Perret, 1966

Hyperolius nitidulus bangwae Perret, 1966 . MHNG 1039.2 “Bangwa”, Cameroon ( Table 3 ). Back beige or brown sometimes with a dark lateral line, or with dark speckles.

This clade consists of 50 sequences from Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Congo and Cameroon ( Fig. 9A ), all reported in GenBank as Hyperolus tuberculatus . The sequence reported in Veith et al. (2009) as Hyperolius tuberculatus Complex B forms part of this clade. The uncorrected p- distances from other clades were 1.9–6.3% ( Table 2 ). Two species occur at Bangoua in western Cameroon, H. nitidulus and a taxon previously identified as H. tuberculatus . Perret (1966) described Hyperolius nitidulus bangwae from Bangoua, and I remove it from the synonomy of H. nitidulus and regard it as a full species.

The most common pattern elements in the descriptions of the type of H. bangwae are a dark lateral line (100%), and dark dorsal speckling (100%).

An advertisement call from Monts Cristal (ZFMK 73143) consists of a series of brief notes at a mean note rate of 9.5 s- 1 with a mean emphasised frequency of 2271 Hz ( Lötters et al. 2004, as H. tuberculatus ). A specimen from the same locality was sequenced (AY329321) and identified as H. bangwae . The advertisement call attributed to H. tuberculatus from Binguéla, Cameroon ( Schiøtz 1999) is within the range of H. bangwae as here envisaged, and is regarded as a call of H. bangwae . The call consists of a series of brief notes, about 13 s-1, with an emphasised frequency of 1900 Hz. This is quite different from the call of H. tuberculatus from Río Muni, Equatorial Guinea (no vouchers), as shown by Bosch et al. (2000). A call from Olemb, Cameroon (as H. tuberculatus ) (no voucher) that consists of a series of simple notes with a note rate of 14 s-1, and an emphasised frequency of 3000 Hz ( Amiet & Goutte 2017) is provisionally regarded as that of H. bangwae , although the call of H. sp. 1 is unknown.

Figures

FIGURE 9. Localities of sequences (black circles), type localities (stars) and location of junior synonyms of Hyperolius bangwae (A), H. tuberculatus (B), and H. glandicolor (C). Locality codes are explained in Table 3.