Ptychadena submascareniensis (Guibé and Lamotte, 1953)

Small Grass Frog

Material: Three females, NGK-Nimba 0044, NGK-Nimba 0046, NGK-Nimba 0047 (Fig. 14C), and two males, NGK-Nimba 0048, NGK-Nimba 0049 (Fig. 14D) .

Comments: We found a large population of P. submascareniensis in predominantly grassy mountain pastures with herbaceous vegetation (07°35.453’N, 008°24.957’W; 843 m asl). There, the species occurred in vast numbers (> 1,500 individuals in an area of approximately 50 ha) during the rainy season. Calling males were observed during the day with peaks between 0830–1030 h GMT and 1830–2000 h GMT. The weather conditions during these observations were characterized by low visibilities due to mist and windy weather. We recorded two migrating individuals in montane grassland in sympatry with A. crusculum and N. occidentalis (07°35.555’N, 008°25.788’W; 1,235 m asl). These rarely documented frogs (compare Guibé and Lamotte 1953, 1958a; Rödel and Bangoura 2004) have a compact body with a moderately pointed snout. Adult females measured 29.5–32.0 mm (N = 8), while males ranged from 24.0– 27.5 mm (N = 18). According to Channing and Rödel (2019), Mount Nimba is the only known Ivorian site to host P. submascareniensis .