Hyperolius benguellensis (Bocage, 1893)

Baptista, Ninda L., António, Telmo & Branch, William R., 2019, The herpetofauna of Bicuar National Park and surroundings, southwestern Angola: a preliminary checklist, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation (e 203) 13 (2), pp. 96-130 : 103

Hyperolius benguellensis (Bocage, 1893) complex Benguela Long Reed Frog ( Fig. 8A–B )

Material: NB510 (36); NB526 (41); NB542 (27); NB543 (27); NB544 (27).

ZMB 77273; ZMB 77274 (collected by Alan Channing, not analyzed).

Comment: Hyperolius benguellensis belongs to the challenging Hyperolius nasutus complex, with a problematic taxonomy throughout Africa ( Schiøtz 1999; Amiet 2005; Marques et al. 2018). Channing et al. (2013) proposed a rearrangement for this group based on morphology, genetics, and advertisement calls, resulting in four species occurring in Angola: H. nasutus , H. dartevellei , H. adspersus , and H. benguellensis . Of these, three were originally described from Angola: Hyperolius nasutus Günther, 1865 , type locality: Duque de Bragança (= Calandula); Hyperolius adspersus Peters, 1877 , type locality: Chinchoxo, in Cabinda; and Hyperolius benguellensis (Bocage, 1893) type locality: "Cahata" that has been incorrectly assigned to Caota (e.g., Channing 2001; Marques et al. 2018; Frost 2019). In fact, Cahata is located 5 km east of Balombo Municipality and was a known collecting site for the famous naturalist José de Anchieta in the nineteenth century ( Bocage 1895). Although the region is still located in Benguela Province, it lies on the plateau at 1,230 m asl, more than 400 km east of the coastal town of Benguela and closer to the town of Huambo, while Caota is found on the outskirts of Benguela at 20 m asl. The name “ benguellensis ” is therefore misleading, and is probably the reason why Cahata was confused with Caota, but the latter is a beach site in the semi-arid Angolan southwest, and an unlikely habitat for a reed frog. We therefore re-establish the type locality of H. benguellensis to Cahata, near Balombo. The assignment of erroneous names to Angolan localities has been detected in other cases ( Branch et al. 2017, 2018; Vaz Pinto et al. 2019), thus special attention must be given to this when consulting historical and recent literature. Channing et al. (2013) assigned one specimen from BNP to H. benguellensis , and we assign these specimens to this name, with the altitude similar to the true type locality providing further support. Butler et al. (2019) collected one specimen from BNP, recording it as H. cf. nasutus , and in this study we tentatively regard this record as the same as ours. Both species, H. benguellensis and H. nasutus , are sympatric in Cangandala National Park (Vaz Pinto, unpub. data). Specimens from this group have been also found in western Zambia ( Bittencourt-Silva 2019) and assigned to H. dartevellei and H. nasicus . Similar to H. angolensis complex, a more complete understanding of this complex in Angola requires countrywide surveys and an integrated analysis of molecular, morphological, and advertisement call data.

Figures

Fig. 8. Hyperolius benguellensis complex, BNP. (A) Ventral view; (B) dorsal view.