02059nas a2200193 4500008004100000245017300041210006900214260003500283300001200318490000700330520138000337653001501717653002501732653002401757653002401781100000501805700000501810856005001815 2004 eng d00aThe California Academy of Sciences Gulf of Guinea Expedition (2001) II. Additions and Corrections to Our Knowledge of the Endemic Amphibians of São Tomé and Príncipe0 aCalifornia Academy of Sciences Gulf of Guinea Expedition 2001 II bCalifornia Academy of Sciences a573-5870 v553 a
We present observations on the São Tomé Island endemic Hyperolius thomensis which indicate that it is one of the few African treefrogs known to utilize phytotelmata (tree holes) forbreeding. Ourfield work and observations strongly suggest that this island giant is restricted to primary forest, remnants of which are usually at higher elevations or inaccessible areas of São Tomé Island. Our locality data and field observations in a number of circumstances are not congruent with those of Loumont (1992). An examination of the data associated with her collections housed in the Natural History Museum of Geneva reveals that her data are not specific with regard to individual specimens and dates and, as a result, the status and distribution of the amphibian species on both islands may have been misinterpreted. We note that females of the endemic ranine ranid frog, Ptychadena newtonii, attain snout-vent lengths greater than other members of the genus, and that this species should therefore be considered an island giant. We describe and illustrate for the first time the males of Africa’s largest treefrog, the Príncipe Island endemic Leptopelis palmatus, provide figures illustrating the range of male and female color pattern polymorphism and comment on adult size dimorphism and size at metamorphosis.
The endemic hyperoliid treefrogs of São Tomé and Príncipe currently recognized as Nesionixalus thomensis (Bocage, 1986) and N. molleri (Bedriaga, 1892) are re-examined. The results of two molecular analyses indicate that these taxa are closely related to each other (monophyletic) but nest within the genus Hyperolius. Acomparison of the morphological character states used by Perret (1976; 1988) to erect the genus Nesionixalus from within Hyperolius Rapp with a broad range of Hyperolius species reveals that most of these are not unique to the island endemics; all except the characters of size and digital tip shape are distributed among a number of other species within the latter genus. Nesionixalus Perret, 1976 is returned to the synonymy of Hyperolius Rapp and Nesionixalus thomensis and N. molleri to Hyperolius thomensis Bocage and H. molleri Bedriaga, respectively.
10aAmphibians10aHyperolius10aNesionixalus1 a1 a uhttps://saotomeprincipe.myspecies.info/node/3