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Issue: Vol. 4379 No. 2: 14 Feb. 2018
Type: Article
Published: 2018-02-13
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4379.2.2
Page range: 177–198
Abstract views: 134
PDF downloaded: 2

A new Reed Frog (Hyperoliidae: Hyperolius) from coastal northeastern Mozambique

Port Elizabeth Museum (Bayworld), Humewood 6013, South Africa School of Natural Resource Management, George Campus, Nelson Mandela University, George 6530, South Africa
Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield, 0028, South Africa
Department of Biology, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas, USA Department of Integrative Biology and Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA
Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Département Origines et Evolution, UMR 7205 ISYEB, 25 rue Cuvier, 75005 Paris, France
Herpetology Section, National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 40658- 00100, Nairobi, Kenya
University of Cincinnati, Department of Biological Sciences, 614 Rieveschl Hall, Cincinnati OH 45220, USA
Amphibia Amphibian endemic coastal pans

Abstract

A new species of African reed frog (genus Hyperolius Rapp, 1842) is described from the Coastal Forests of the Eastern Africa Biodiversity Hotspot in northeastern Mozambique. It is currently only known from less than ten localities associated with the Mozambican coastal pans system, but may also occur in the southeastern corner of Tanzania. Phylogenetic reconstructions using the mitochondrial 16S marker revealed that it is the sister taxon of Hyperolius mitchelli (>5.6% 16S mtDNA sequence divergence) and forms part of a larger H. mitchelli complex with H. mitchelli and H. rubrovermiculatus. The new species is distinguished from other closely related Hyperolius species by genetic divergence, morphology, vocalisation, and dorsal colouration.

 

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