The taxonomic status of two West African Leptopelis species: L. macrotis Schiøtz, 1967 and L. spiritusnoctis Rödel, 2007 (Amphibia: Anura: Arthroleptidae)

Abstract

We herein examine the taxonomic status of two West African forest-dwelling Leptopelis species. The small L. spiritusnoctis, described from the Upper Guinean forests of West Africa, was recently synonymized with L. aubryi, described from Gabon. The large L. macrotis, known from Ghana to Sierra Leone, was downgraded to a subspecies of L. millsoni, ranging from the Niger Delta to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. These taxonomic decisions are in contrast to the general biogeographic pattern of African forest anurans and we consequently tested if the morphologically similar taxon pairs are indeed conspecifics by applying acoustic and molecular techniques. Both techniques confirmed that populations from West Africa differ significantly from their Central African morphological equivalents. Consequently, we herein resurrect L. spiritusnoctis as a valid species. The acoustic data indicate that L. aubryi may comprise a complex of cryptic species. We further advocate using the name L. macrotis for West African and L. millsoni for Central African populations of these larger arboreal frogs. However, we had neither genetic nor acoustic data from the type locality of L. millsoni available and could not clarify if these frogs belong to the more western or eastern taxon or even represent a Nigerian endemic. Thus, it is possible that West African populations need to be termed L. millsoni in the future. For populations east of the Cross River, Nigeria, the name L. guineensis would be available.

Giant Tree Frog diversification in West and Central Africa: Isolation by physical barriers, climate, and reproductive traits

“…rufus , and the unique male courtship call of L . rufus (Amiet & Goutte, 2017; Rödel et al, 2014). Audiospectrograms and oscillograms were made using Raven Pro 1.4 (Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology), and analysed with a Fast Fourier transformation window of 512 points, a brightness of 70 points, and a contrast of 70 points.…”

“…syntopy) in western Central Africa is unclear. Furthermore, L. macrotis has been considered a subspecies of L. millsoni by some authors (Amiet, 2012) and the geographic boundary between L. macrotis and L. millsoni in West Africa remains uncertain (Rödel et al, 2014). More recently, the three species have been proposed to differ in tympanum size (Amiet, 2012;Schiøtz, 1999), Des études examinant la divergence phénotypique et le contact secondaire entre ces populations géographiquement structurées pourraient démontrer comment des barrières biogéographiques à échelle plus petite et plus récentes contribuent à la diversification régionale.…”

“…macrotis and L . millsoni in West Africa remains uncertain (Rödel et al, 2014). More recently, the three species have been proposed to differ in tympanum size (Amiet, 2012; Schiøtz, 1999), which likely has functional consequences for auditory sensitivity (Fox, 1995).…”

Rivers, not refugia, drove diversification in arboreal, sub‐Saharan African snakes

“…The Niger is the third largest river in Africa and it likely originated approximately 29-34 million years ago (Chardon et al, 2016;Reijers, 2011), reaching its full extent by the mid-Miocene as continental uplift progressed (Reijers, 2011). It is a biogeographic barrier for several species of frogs (Onadeko & Rödel, 2009;Rödel et al, 2014), primates (Eriksson et al, 2004), and shrews (Igbokwe et al, 2019).…”