Heleophryne rosei Hewitt 1925b

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) : -

Heleophryne rosei Hewitt 1925b

Records of the Albany Museum, 3(4): 363; Pls. XVIII & XIX.

Lectotype: PEM A1541 (formerly AMG 4965); Table Mountain, Western Cape, South Africa; W. Rose, December 1924.

Allolectotype: PEM A1542 (formerly AMG 4965); same details as lectotype.

Paralectotype: PEM A1546 (formerly AMG 4965); same details as lectotype; 10 tadpoles.

Remarks. The documentation of the material of Hewitt (1925b) is poor and ambiguous: “… founded on adult male and female examples and full grown tadpoles”, thus possibly referring to more than one male and female. The type bottle received from AM only contained one adult male and female, plus 10 tadpoles. It is proposed that PEM A1541 (female) be designated as a lectotype and PEM A1542 (male) as allolectotype. The lectotype has a midventral incision and an oblique incision behind the parotid. The allolectotype has an oblique dorsal incision from left eye to right lower thorax, musculature upper right fore-limb dissected, and mid ventral incision present. Type series include 10 tadpoles, accounted for but in very poor condition. The X-ray of the adult female is illustrated in PL. XVIII and is the first time Hewitt used X-rays in describing the osteology (p. 365) of a species in southern Africa. Full body X-rays are available for both adult types and the two largest tadpoles.