Taxonomic Notes: Pickersgill (1984, Durban Museum Novitates) described A. crotalus and recognized it as a subspecies of A. aureus. More recently, it has been treated as a distinct species by authors such as DuPreez & Carruthers (2017, Frogs of Southern Africa, A Complete Guide), Channing & Rödel (2019, Field Guide to the Frogs & Other Amphibians of Africa), and Lawson et al. (2018, Herpetology Notes). Neither A. aureus or A. crotalus have been included in recent phylogenetic analyses of Afrixalus (e.g., Greenbaum et al., 2022, Zootaxa; Charles et al., 2019, Journal of Biogeography), though the unpublished thesis by Reeder (2019; North-West University) found A. aureus to be sister to A. delicatus. |
Map of Life