Abstract
Tadpoles of Hyperolius castaneus and Hyperolius jackie were found in the Nyungwe National Park in Rwanda and adjacent areas. Tadpoles of both species were identified by DNA-barcoding. At the shore of a bog pool three clutches of Hyperolius castaneus of apparently different age, all laid on moss pads (Polytrichum commune, Isotachis aubertii) or grass tussocks (Andropogon shirensis) 2–5 cm above the water level, were found. One clutch of Hyperolius castaneus was infested by larval dipterid flies. The most recently laid clutch contained about 20 eggs within a broad egg-jelly envelope. The eggs were attached to single blades of a tussock and distributed over a vertical distance of 8 cm. A pair of Hyperolius castaneus found in axillary amplexus was transported in a plastic container to the lab for observation. The pair deposited a total of 57 eggs (15 eggs attached to the upper wall of the transport container, 42 eggs floated in the water). Embryogenesis of the clutch was monitored in the plastic container at 20 ± 2 °C (air temperature) and documented by photos until Gosner Stage 25. The description of the tadpole of Hyperolius castaneus is based on a Gosner Stage 29 individual from a series of 57 tadpoles (Gosner stages 25–41). The description of the tadpole of Hyperolius jackie is based on a Gosner Stage 32 individual from a series of 43 tadpoles (Gosner stages 25–41). Egg laying behavior and embryogenesis are unknown for Hyperolius jackie. The labial tooth row formula for both species is 1/3(1) with a narrow median gap of the tooth row. Variation in external morphology was observed in size and labial tooth row formula within the species. With the tadpole descriptions of Hyperolius castaneus and Hyperolius jackie, 36 tadpoles of the 135 known Hyperolius species have been described, including five of the eleven Hyperolius species known from Rwanda.
Highlights
The reed frog genus Hyperolius currently comprises 135 species (Frost 2015)
They occured in sympatry with H. discodactylus, H. jackie, Leptopelis karissimbensis Ahl, 1929, L. cf. kivuensis 2, Phrynobatrachus acutirostris Nieden 1912, “1913”, P. cf. versicolor Ahl, 1924, Xenopus wittei Tinsley, Ko
Four of the Rwandan Hyperolius (H. castaneus, H. discodactylys, H. frontalis, and H. jackie) have been recorded in cloud forests of the Nyungwe National Park (Dehling 2012, unpubl. data), and three (H. castaneus, H. cinnamomeoventris, H. glandicolor [the latter recorded as H. viridiflavus by Roelke and Smith (2010), but species identification was corrected as H. glandicolor by Dehling, unpubl. data.]) in cloud forests of the Volcano National Park (Roelke and Smith 2010)
Summary
The reed frog genus Hyperolius currently comprises 135 species (Frost 2015). Taxonomy of this genus is known to be complicated (e.g., Ahl 1931, Schiøtz 1975, 1999, Lötters et al 2004, Rödel et al 2010) because of high intraspecific variability, high interspecific morphological similarity, and sympatric distributions (e.g., Channing et al 2013, Liedtke et al 2014). Our current view integrating morphological, bioacoustics and molecular data gives credit to the presence of only four species in the Nyungwe National Park: H. castaneus, H. discodactylus, H. frontalis Laurent, 1950 and the recently described H. jackie Dehling, 2012 We describe the morphological features of the tadpoles and provide new information on the egg-laying behavior of H. castaneus and embryogenesis in their terrestrial clutches
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