Rappia dombeensis Tornier, 1896: 150, pl. 4, fig. 86.

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

Rappia dombeensis Tornier, 1896: 150, pl. 4, fig. 86.

Holotype.

ZMB 6465, ”Dombe” [Dombe Grande, Benguela Province, Angola], coll. José Alberto de Oliveira Anchieta, don. José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage.

Paratypes.

ZMB 9173 and ZMB 74945 and 75448 (both formerly part of ZMB 9173), “Chinchoxo” [Cabinda Province, Angola], don. Africanische Gesellschaft.

Present name.

Not assigned to a valid name according to Frost (2021); see below.

Remarks.

As far as we are aware this nomen was not used again as valid after its introduction by Tornier (1896). It is not mentioned in recent compilations of the Angolan herpetofauna (e.g. Marques et al. 2018).

In a letter sent to Wilhelm Peters, dated 12 June 1869, Bocage announced a shipment containing 30 species of "Reptiles et Batraciens". He listed under no. 21 a " Hyperolius dombeensis n. sp. [from] Dombe". The letter is archived in the Historical Research department at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (ZMB). The specimens were inventoried by Peters as ZMB 6456 under the name " Hyperolius dombeensis Bocage" and marked as type specimen. Tornier (1896: 150) attributed the authorship to Bocage as well. However, to the best of our knowledge, Bocage never described a reed frog with the specific epithet " Hyperolius dombeensis ". Furthermore, the name of this "new species" used by Bocage in his letter to Peters, is not accompanied by a description or drawing. Because of this, the criteria of Article 50.1.1 of the Code (ICZN 1999) are not fully met and the authorship should be attributed to Tornier (1896) who first published the name together with a short description and figure.

Beside the specimen from “Dombe” which Tornier regarded as “Type”, Tornier also mentioned “identical” specimens from “Chinchoxo”, ZMB 9173 [originally three specimens] and a specimen from "Port Natal" [Durban, KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa] in the "Hamburger Museum". The Hamburg specimen, inventoried under ZMH R16591, which we consider as paratype too, is currently determined as Hyperolius m. marmoratus (Jakob Hallermann in litt. 6 July 2020), and was collected by W. Joost on 23 April 1893. Jost also collected invertebrates at “Lourenço Marques" [Maputo, Mozambique] and “Delagoa-Bai” [Maputo Bay, Mozambique] ( Wassmann 1922; Harms and Dupéré 2018; Jakob Hallermann in litt. 31 July 2020).

Our examination of the holotype revealed that it is a member of the 'sharp-nosed reed frogs’, Hyperolius nasutus complex. Without genetic data, identification to species is not possible (compare Channing et al. 2013).