Abstract
West African torrent-frogs of the genus Odontobatrachus currently belong to a single species: Odontobatrachus natator (Boulenger, 1905). Recently, molecular results and biogeographic separation led to the recognition of five Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) thus identifying a species-complex. Based on these insights, morphological analyses on more than 150 adult specimens, covering the entire distribution of the family and all OTUs, were carried out. Despite strong morphological congruence, combinations of morphological characters made the differentiation of OTUs successful and allowed the recognition of five distinct species: Odontobatrachus natator, and four species new to science: Odontobatrachus arndti sp. n., O. fouta sp. n., O. smithi sp. n. and O. ziama sp. n. All species occur in parapatry: Odontobatrachus natator is known from western Guinea to eastern Liberia, O. ziama sp. n. from eastern Guinea, O. smithi sp. n. and O. fouta sp. n. from western Guinea, O. arndti sp. n. from the border triangle Guinea-Liberia-Côte d’Ivoire. In addition, for the first time the advertisement call of a West African torrent-frog (O. arndti sp. n.) is described.
Highlights
For a long time all West African torrent-frogs have been assigned to the genus Petropedetes Reichenow, 1874, until their generic distinctiveness from Central African species was revealed by Barej et al (2014a)
Phenetic differences of all Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) were assessed by carrying out a principal component analysis (PCA) on the respective datasets of a total of 65 males and 93 females
Due to the low number of available data points for O. smithi and O. fouta, placement of their centroids has to be regarded with caution
Summary
For a long time all West African torrent-frogs have been assigned to the genus Petropedetes Reichenow, 1874, until their generic distinctiveness from Central African species was revealed by Barej et al (2014a). The adult frogs are characterised by a medium to large body length (females reaching > 60 mm snout-urostyle length), the possession of dilated, heart-shaped toe tips, a rough dorsal skin texture with glandular ridges, mandibular fangs in both sexes and femoral glands in males (Boulenger 1905; Barej et al 2014a) These frogs have a patchy distribution within the Upper Guinea forest region, roughly ranging from western Guinea through Sierra Leone and Liberia to western Côte d’Ivoire (Boulenger 1905; Guibé and Lamotte 1958; Böhme 1994b; Rödel 2003; Rödel et al 2004a; Hillers and Rödel 2007; Hillers et al 2008a). We re-describe Odontobatrachus natator (Boulenger, 1905), describe four new species, and provide the first call analysis for Odontobatrachus
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