Structure of the Call and Relationships of Bufo microscaphus Cope

Abstract

Lepadogaster lepadogaster is the most common Eastern Atlantic clingfish and is, perhaps, the best known of any species in the entire family. When the question of its two subspecies was first dealt with (Briggs, 1955: 35) it seemed probable that L. 1. lepadogaster was a southern form extending from Dakar throughout the Mediterranean and L. 1. purpurea a northern form ranging from Roscoff, on the Atlantic coast of France, to the Shetland Islands. Although a comparatively large number of specimens (88) were examined at that time, only four of them came from the West African area (one from Cape Verde, two from the Canaries, and one from the Salvage Islands). The loan of clingfish material from Dr. Cadenat contained 144 individuals from the Dakar vicinity and shows conclusively that the subspecies from that area is L. 1. purpurea and not L. 1. lepadogaster. Therefore, it is quite apparent that these two infraspecific forms are divided geographically in eastern and western rather than northern and southern groups. Although the two specimens from the Canaries and the one from the Salvage Islands were previously identified as L. 1. lepadogaster, they were e Eastern Atlantic. The exception, as meni ned above, is Diplecogast r megal ps from off i rather poor condition and might actually bel ng to the other subspecies. For the present, however, L. 1. lepadogaster should be considered a Mediterranean subspecies which extends out in the Atlantic to include these offshore locali-