Bufo gariepensis nubicola Hewitt 1927

Conradie, Werner, Branch, William R. & Watson, Gillian, 2015, Type specimens in the Port Elizabeth Museum, South Africa, including the historically important Albany Museum collection. Part 1: Amphibians, Zootaxa 3936 (1) : -

Bufo gariepensis nubicola Hewitt 1927

Records of the Albany Museum, 3(5): 412–413; Pl. XXIV, Fig. 5 .

Current name: Vandijkophrynus gariepensis nubicolus (Hewitt, 1927)

Holotype: PEM A2513 (formerly AMG 5227); The summit of Mont-aux-Sources (11,500 ft.), Lesotho; R. Essex, January 1926.

Additional specimens: (a) PEM A2514 (formerly AMG 5228); Foot of Nemahadi Pass, Lesotho; R. Essex, January 1926. (b) PEM A2515 (formerly AMG 4972); Nemahadi Police Camp, Mont-aux-Sources, Lesotho; J. Cottrell, February 1925.

Remarks. Lambiris (1988) noted the holotype to be in the PEM. Branch and Braack (1995) incorrectly and redundantly designated PEM A2513 as the lectotype, considering the Nemahadi Pass (AMG 5228) and Nemahadi Police Station (AMG 4972) specimens to form part of the type series (paralectotypes). However, Hewitt (1927) specifically referred to a single specimen as the ‘Type’, and the two other specimens from Nemahadi Pass and Nemahadi Police Station discussed in the type description constitute only ‘additional material’. The holotype is intact, but in very poor condition. The two additional specimens have mid-ventral incisions and are also in very poor condition. Full body X-rays exist for all material. FitzSimons (1948) treated this species as a full species ( Bufo nubicolus ), incorrectly amending the specific name ( Frost 2014). This specific amendment was followed by Poynton (1964), but who prefered to retain it as a subspecies, i.e. B. gariepensis nubicolus . This notion was followed by subsequent authors (e.g. Lambiris 1988). Frost et al. (2006) placed many large African bufonids in a new genus Vandijkophrynus , and Du Preez & Carruthers (2009) used the combination Vandijkophrynus gariepensis nubicolus . However, Channing (2001) and Frost (2014) do not recognize subspecies within V. gariepensis , and the status of nubicolus remains unresolved.

Figures

FIGURE 5. Family Pyxicephalidae II: A—Holotype of Cacosternum thorini (PEM A 10091), B—Holotype of Cacosternum karooicum (PEM A 5459), C—Holotype of Poyntonia paludicola (PEM A 1600), D—Lectotype of Natalobatrachus bonebergi (PEM A 1549), E—Lectotype of Cacosternum capense (PEM A 4963).