A putative driver of global amphibian decline is the panzootic chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). While Bd has been documented across continental Africa, its distribution in West Africa remains ambiguous. We tested 793 West African amphibians (one caecilian and 61 anuran species) for the presence of Bd. The samples originated from seven West African countries - Bénin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone - and were collected from a variety of habitats, ranging from lowland rainforests to montane forests, montane grasslands to humid and dry lowland savannahs. The species investigated comprised various life-history strategies, but we focused particularly on aquatic and riparian species. We used diagnostic PCR to screen 656 specimen swabs and histology to analyse 137 specimen toe tips. All samples tested negative for Bd, including a widespread habitat generalist Hoplobatrachus occipitalis which is intensively traded on the West African food market and thus could be a potential dispersal agent for Bd. Continental fine-grained (30 arc seconds) environmental niche models suggest that Bd should have a broad distribution across West Africa that includes most of the regions and habitats that we surveyed. The surprising apparent absence of Bd in West Africa indicates that the Dahomey Gap may have acted as a natural barrier. Herein we highlight the importance of this Bd-free region of the African continent - especially for the long-term conservation of several threatened species depending on fast flowing forest streams (Conraua alleni (“Vulnerable”) and Petropedetes natator (“Near Threatened”)) as well as the “Critically Endangered” viviparous toad endemic to the montane grasslands of Mount Nimba (Nimbaphrynoides occidentalis).

Astylosternus laticephalus sp. nov. Rödel, Hillers, Leaché, Kouamé, Ofori-Boateng, Diaz & Sandberger is described fromeastern Ivory Coast and western and central Ghana, and compared to Astylosternus occidentalis Parker, 1931 from thewestern part of the Upper Guinea forest zone (western Ivory Coast, Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone). Based on a com-prehensive sample, including specimens from the entire range, the latter species is re-described. The new species is char-acterized by a body shape typical for frogs of the genus Astylosternus, but has an exceptionally broad head, i.e. broaderthan in A. occidentalis. The basic dorsal pattern of A. laticephalus sp. nov. consists of a brownish to brownish red colour-ation with distinct red dots (red dots are only rarely present in A. occidentalis). The new species has bicoloured eyes withthe lower part of the iris being grey, the upper third of the iris is orange to red (A. occidentalis always has a uniform greyishiris). Males of the new species lack spines on the throat, belly (always present in A. occidentalis males), and a layer ofblack nuptial skin in the pectoral region (present in male A. occidentalis from western Guinea). Astylosternus laticephalussp. nov. differs from A. occidentalis by a mean pairwise genetic distance of 3.2% in the investigated part of the mitochon-drial 16S rRNA gene. Genetic divergence to the morphologically most similar Central African species, A. diadematus,was 11.9%. We briefly discuss the phylogenetic position of West African Astylosternus, hint on the possibility that thegenus might be paraphyletic and discuss the biogeography of West African Astylosternus, in particular with respect to forest cover fluctuations in the past.

No abstract

We describe a new small Phrynobatrachus species from southern Cameroon. The new species exhibits a combination ofunique morphological characters and a distinctive colour pattern consisting of a black lateral face mask, a black throat inmales, a white throat with uniform black lower mandibles in females and a white belly in both sexes. Morphologically itis characterized by small size, absence of an eyelid cornicle, presence of black spines on anterior part of vocal sac in males,spines on flanks, presence of discs on toe and finger tips, distinct webbing, absence of nuptial pads on male thumbs andscapular ridges converging in a straight line. Analysis of mitochondrial 16S rRNA revealed that the new species differsfrom 34 other West and Central African species of the genus by a minimum distance of 4.5% and is most similar to severalPhrynobatrachus species which are almost all endemic to the Cameroon volcanic line or parts of it, i.e. P. chukuchuku(4.9%), P. werneri (5.1%), P. steindachneri (5.2%), P. schioetzi (5.6%), P. batesii (5.9%), P. cricogaster (5.5%), P. danko(6.1%), and P. manengoubensis (6.1%), respectively. The new species is most similar to P. batesii, which was describedfrom forests close to the type locality of the new species. Morphologically the new species differs from P. batesii by muchsmaller size (< 20 mm vs. 25-31 mm), shape of scapular ridges, belly colour, shorter shanks, absence of nuptial pads and presence of gular spines in breeding males.

We report on the search and rediscovery of the Liberian Nimba toad, Nimbaphrynoides liberiensis, 30 years after its original description. A small surviving population could be traced in the surroundings of the type locality Mount Alpha, Liberia. The type locality was meanwhile destroyed by open cast mining. Similar to the Guinean Nimba toad, Nimbaphrynoides occidentalis, the Liberian toad lives exclusively in open, savanna like habitats above 1200 m a.s.l. The presumably few surviving individuals and the small and patchy distribution classify the Liberian toads as Critically Endangered (Stuart et al. 2008). A morphological, acoustical and genetic comparison of Liberian and Guinean populations revealed only minor, but distinct morphological (size, colour) differences. Genetically and acoustically the two taxa were indistinguishable. We therefore propose to consider the two populations as conspecific and to consider Nimbaphrynoides liberiensis (Xavier, 1978) as junior synonym of Nimbaphrynoides occidentalis (Angel, 1943). Because of the morphological differences we propose to treat the Liberian population as a subspecies of the Guinean toad and herein introduce the new name: Nimbaphrynoides occidentalis liberiensis.