Xenopus (Silurana) mellotropicalis Evans, Carter, Greenbaum, Gvoždík, Kelley, McLaughlin, Pauwels, Portik, Stanley, Tinsley, Tobias and Blackburn, 2015

Lobón-Rovira, Javier, Lobón-Rovira, Baptista, Ninda L, Clark, Tyron, Verburgt, Luke, Jongsma, Gregory Fm, Conradie, Werner, and, Luis Veríssimo, Vaz, Pedro & Pinto, 2025, Filling the gaps: herpetological checklist of Mayombe National Park and Cabinda Province (Angola) shed light on one of the most unexplored corners of tropical Central Africa, African Journal of Herpetology 74 (1), pp. 1-59 : 1-59

Xenopus (Silurana) mellotropicalis Evans, Carter, Greenbaum, Gvoždík, Kelley, McLaughlin, Pauwels, Portik, Stanley, Tinsley, Tobias and Blackburn, 2015

Figure 7L

Material. ANGOLA – Cabinda Province • Mayombe NP, Quissoki; –4.6028, 12.8736; 336 m a.s.l.; P3.176; GenBank: PQ455960 .

Identification. A medium-sized (SVL = 51–58 mm) flattened frog with four claws on the feet and smooth skin on the head and dorsum, grey belly with pale yellow markings ( Channing and Rödel 2019). The specimens reported here differ by 1.3% (16S p -distance) from the type series from Estuaire, Gabon (GenBank: KT728050 ) and by 0.8% (16S p -distance) from unpublished sequences from Loufika, Republic of the Congo (Greg Jongsma unpublished data). The specimens from Cabinda Province exhibit an extension of the interocular cream-yellow line reported by Evans et al. (2015), that extends backwards to the insertion of the hind limbs.

Biology and distribution. Xenopus mellotropicalis is distributed in primary moist forest from Cameroon to southeastern DRC and Cabinda Province ( Baptista 2024). The specimen reported here represents the first record of the species for Angola ( Baptista 2024). The specimen was found in Upper Mayombe, in a pond next to a large river in syntopy with Hoplobatrachus occipitalis .

Figures

Figure 7. Species of the families Phrynobatrachidae, Pipidae, Ptychadenidae, Ranidae and Rhacophoridae recorded from from Mayombe National Park and Cabinda Province, Angola. Codes in brackets represent field numbers. A. Phrynobatrachus auritus (P2.057) and B. (P2.033) from Vaku, Upper Mayombe, C. (P3.141) from Chimbete and D. (P3.191) from Sanga Wanda, Lower Mayombe. E. P. aff. parvulus (P2.115) from Caio Cacungo. F. Amplectant pair of P. aff. parvulus from Sanga Wanda, G. (P3.135) from Chimbete, and H. (P3.124) Mbundu, Lower Mayombe. I. Phrynobatrachus sp. (P2.196) from Miconge, Upper Mayombe. J. Xenopus (Xenopus) allofraseri (P3.121) and K. Xenopus (Xenopus) andrei (P3.533) from Sanga Wanda, Lower Mayombe. L. Xenopus (Silurana) mellotropicalis (P3.176), from Quissoki, Upper Mayombe. M. Hymenochirus feae (P3.544) from Mbundo, Lower Mayombe. N. Ptychadena anchietae (P3.107) from Sanga Wanda, Lower Mayombe. O. Ptychadena mascareniensis OUT 6 (P3.168), Lombe River, Vaku, Upper Mayombe. P. Ptychadena perreti (P2.214) from Miconge, Upper Mayombe Q. Ptychadena taenioscelis (P1.141) from Tando Zinze. R. Hylarana (Amnirana) albolabris (P3.154) from Quissoki and S. Hylarana (Amnirana) aff. lepus (P2.187) from Miconge, Upper Mayombe. T. Chiromantis rufescens (P9.072) from South of Dinge. Photographs by PVP (A–E, G–T), JLR (F).