Hyperolius pardalis Laurent, 1948

Lötters, S., Schick, S., Scheelke, K., Teege, P., Kosuch, J., Rotich, D. & Veith, M., 2004, Bio-sketches and partitioning of sympatric reed frogs, genus Hyperolius (Amphibia; Hyperoliidae), in two humid tropical African forest regions, Journal of Natural History 38 (15), pp. 1969-1997 : 1973-1974

Hyperolius pardalis Laurent

(figure 3)

This hyperoliid occupies a geographic range from the Sanaga River in

Cameroon south to the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon; it occurs in bush land and forest ( Perret, 1966; Schiøtz, 1999; Frétey and Blanc, 2000; Lötters et al., 2001). Hyperolius steindachneri Bocage , formerly treated as probably conspecific to H. pardalis (cf. Schiøtz, 1999), is well distinguishable, according to Channing (2001) and our own observations. The taxonomic relationship with H. machadoi Laurent remains unclear. The holotype of the latter is catalogued at MRAC but cannot be traced (apparently, it was loaned in 1962 to a now unidentifiable person).

Diagnosis. (1) SVL of males 22.1¡ 0.81 mm (20.5–23.0 mm, n ~5), SVL of females unknown (most probably slightly larger than males); (2) TIBL/SVL 0.51¡0.03 (0.49–0.55, n ~5), HW/SVL 0.36¡0.02 (0.34–0.38, n ~5); (3) dorsal surface smooth; (4) snout shape dorsally and laterally rounded, nares visible from above; (5) E-N/EYE 0.68¡0.08 (0.57–0.79, n ~5), canthus rostralis straight from tip of snout to nostril and straight or slightly concave from nostril to eye; (6) tympanum covered by thick skin; (7) FOOT/TIBL 0.86¡0.02 (0.84–0.90, n ~5); (8) foot webbing formula: 1(1), 2i(1) 2e(K), 3i(1–1K) 3e(K–1), 4i/e (1–1K), 5(K); hand webbing formula: 1(1), 2i/e(1), 3i(1–1K) 3e(1), 4(1); (9) PhJ is dorsally greenish yellow with a white dorsolateral line from tip of snout (U-shape on snout) to before groin, ventrally uniformly yellowish; PhF is dorsally yellowish with irregular brownish marks and spots, lateral and ventral sides brown with yellowish and whitish spots; males always have a white transversal mark on the gular flap, which otherwise does not differ in coloration from the venter; the iris is brownish (information provided is based on collected and some non-collected males); (10) for sequence of 560 bp fragment of mitochondrial DNA of the 16S ribosomal gene see GenBank under AY323922 (~ZFMK 73153); (11) LTRF unknown.

Hyperolius pardalis is similar to H. bolifambae Mertens , H. machadoi and H. steindachneri ( Amiet, 1973; Perret, 1976; Schiøtz, 1999; Channing, 2001). Hyperolius bolifambae from eastern Nigeria and Cameroon and H. steindachneri from Angola to the south-western Democratic Republic of Congo, have no or fewer dorsal spots. The gular flap in adult males of H. bolifambae is comparatively smaller. According to Amiet (1973), the former also has a different advertisement call to the partly sympatric H. pardalis . Due to the lack of material and knowledge, we cannot give an opinion on differences between H. machadoi and H. pardalis .

Life history. As elsewhere, at the Monts Cristal H. pardalis is a nocturnal arboreal reed frog. Males were common in swampy areas with puddles, in semicleared areas and along narrow slow-running creeks or shallow standing water at forest edges. They emitted advertisement calls during the night time from vegetation above water, ca 1–2 m above ground. These are the breeding sites of this species at other localities (cf. Perret, 1966; Schiøtz, 1999).

Males emit a melodious long call composed of a single pulsed note (figure 2B), recognizable to the human ear as a ‘buzz’. Numerical call parameters are listed in table 1. Vocalizations recorded by us coincide well with advertisement calls assigned to H. pardalis from Cameroon by Amiet (in Schiøtz, 1999).