Amietia chapini ( Noble, 1924 )

Bittencourt-Silva Keywords., Gabriela B., 2019, A herpetological survey of western Zambia, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation (e 181) 13 (2), pp. 1-28 : 12

Amietia chapini ( Noble, 1924)

Chapin's River Frog

Material. HILLWOOD FARM: BMNH 2018.5660–61, BMNH 2018.5662 –63, BMNH 2018.5664 ( Fig. 6O ), BMNH 2018.5665. Comments: Specimens found near streams in miombo woodland. The result of the BLAST search shows that A. chapini is the closest match to the specimens collected at Hillwood Farm (sequence similarity with A. chapini of 96–98%). All specimens have long legs (tibiofibula ~0.6 of snout-vent length), as noted by Noble (1924). I note that the specimens described as A. chapini by Channing et al. (2016) differ from the specimens listed above in coloration – the latter being darker. If these specimens are confirmed to be A. chapini , this will be the first record of this species for Zambia, but their presence in Zambia is not surprising considering the proximity (ca. 380 km) between the currently known populations from southern DRC (Kundelungu National Park) and Hillwood Farm.

Figures

Fig. 6. Amphibians of western Zambia. (A) Phrynobatrachus cf. parvulus (BMNH 2018.5889), (B) Phrynobatrachus natalensis (BMNH 2018.5838), (C) Phrynobatrachus natalensis (BMNH 2018.5842), (D) Phrynobatrachus sp. 1 (BMNH 2018.5867), (E) Phrynobatrachus sp. 1 (BMNH 2018.5861), (F) Phrynobatrachus sp. 1 (BMNH 2018.5869), (G) Xenopus poweri (BMNH 2018.5659), (H) Xenopus pygmaeus, (I) Ptychadena anchietae (BMNH 2018.5730), (J) Ptychadena cf. mossambica (BMNH 2018.5759), (K) Ptychadena porosissima (BMNH 2018.5766), (L) Ptychadena porosissima (BMNH 2018.5769), (M) Ptychadena porosissima (BMNH 2018.5770), (N) Ptychadena taenioscelis (BMNH 2018.5785), (O) Amietia chapini (BMNH 2018.5664), (P) Pyxicephalus cf. adspersus (BMNH 2018.5791), (Q) Tomopterna sp. (BMNH 2018.5797), (R) Chiromantis xerampelina (BMNH 2018.5798).