Hyperolius cf. langi Noble, 1924

Badjedjea, Gabriel, Masudi, Franck M., Akaibe, Benjamin Dudu & Gvoždík, Václav, 2022, Amphibians of Kokolopori: an introduction to the amphibian fauna of the Central Congolian Lowland Forests, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation (e 301) 16 (1), pp. 35-70 : 52-54

Hyperolius cf. langi Noble, 1924

Fig. 8F.

Area: Yalokole, Yetee.

Season/survey: Wet (May 2018), dry (Aug 2019).

Material: CSB:Herp: RNBK 159, 587–592, 610, 614.

Comments: This species seems to be relatively rare in Kokolopori. Individuals were found calling and well hidden in the dense herbaceous vegetation that overgrew a small stream in farmbush at the edge of secondary forest. This species has two distinct color morphs. One has a camouflage-like pattern corresponding to the “facies kuligae ” (Laurent 1950), while the second has light canthal and dorsolateral stripes extending halfway down the body. We refer to the latter as the “forma albomarginata ” ( Fig. 8F ) following the name of the phenotypically corresponding nominal taxon Hyperolius albomarginatus Laurent, 1940 , synonymized with H. langi (Laurent 1950) . There has been a long-standing debate regarding the taxonomic distinction and distributions of H. langi (type locality in Bas-Uele, NE DRC) and H. kuligae (type locality on Mt. Cameroon), e.g., Schiøtz (1999). As the color pattern variation in H. langi from northeastern DRC (unpub. data) basically corresponds to the variation of H. kuligae in Cameroon (cf. Amiet 2012), this suggests that the two species share these phenotypic characteristics. We follow Köhler et al. (2005), who studied advertisement calls, with the opinion that the two species represent vicariants with H. kuligae in western and H. langi in eastern Central Africa. The relatively deep genomic divergence also supports the species status of both taxa ( Portik et al. 2019). However, the exact distributional limits of the two species are unknown. As the Kokolopori population is relatively distant from the type locality (located north of the Congo River), and also considering some differences in coloration details, we refer to this population as H. cf. langi . Interestingly, Bittencourt-Silva (2019) reported a finding of the little-known H. major from a forest patch in northwestern Zambia, supposedly genetically close to H. langi and H. kuligae . However, the photographed male differs in coloration from the Kokolopori specimens. Individuals with the camouflage-like pattern may be confused with H. cf. platyceps and the hourglass specimens of H. cf. cinnamomeoventris , as all three species have similar color pattern variations. The photographed specimen of “ H. kuligae ” from Boteka (western Équateur Province) reported by Schiøtz (2006) could be conspecific with H. cf. langi .

Figures

Fig. 8. Hyperoliids, Hyperolius. (A) H. cf. cinnamomeoventris, striped morph (male). (B) H. cf. cinnamomeoventris, striped morph (female). (C) H. cf. cinnamomeoventris, hourglass morph (male). (D) H. cf. cinnamomeoventris, hourglass morph (female); note the species-specific red coloration of the inner thighs in both sexes in (C) and (D). (E) H. cf. cinnamomeoventris, hourglass morph (male). (F) H. cf. langi, striped morph, “forma albomarginata” (male). (G) H. phantasticus boulengeri (male, Phase J). (H) H. phantasticus boulengeri (female).