Description
A medium-sized (Males 43-50 mm, females 46-51 mm) Phlyctimantis from West Africa and Cameroun with small conical white warts on dorsum. Hidden part of limbsbarred in red and black (western populations) or yellow and black (eastern populations). Colour in life. - Specimens from Côte d'Ivoire: dorsum a dense grey with olive green tinge. Hidden parts of limbs, especially femur and corresponding part of flank barred in black and red. Ventrum greyish blue with pink spots. Throat in males olive green. Hands and feet dark greyish. Specimens from western Cameroun (Mamfe): dorsum light beige with small brown dots, by night blackish. Hidden parts of limbs barred in black and yellow. Ventrum greyish, no pink spots. Throat of male yellowish. Boulenger based his description of P. leonardi on specimens (syntypes) from Gabon and Fernando Po, but Capocaccia selected a specimen from Gabon as his lectotype. Perret has recently separated the West African and Cameronese specimens of P. leonardi from those from Gabon and given them the name P. boulengeri. The distinguishing character for P. boulengeri is the smaller size, fine conical white-tipped warts on dorsum and a somewhat different pattern on hidden parts of limbs, darker ventrum, and a greyish to black dorsum, rather than brown. The validity of size as a diagnostic criterion has been doubted by Largen & Dowsett-Lemaire (see under P. leonardi). The populations from Cameroun and those from Côte d'Ivoire differ somewhat, especially in coloration. Development. - The tadpoles are similar to those of Kassina cochranae, but body and fins are uniform, not mottled (Perret in. litt.).
The males often call in vast numbers around small waterholes in forest and sometimes in bushland. The voice is a typical Kassina call perhaps of a less pure tonal quality that that of the Kassinas. Its duration is 0.1 sec and the frequency-intensity maximum rises from about 900 to 2900 cps. The voice can be separated into segments where the frequency-intensity maximum of each segment, especially in the middle of the call, is higher that that of the preceding segment.

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria

	View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.
	View Bd and Bsal data (4 records).

Probably a forest species, but also sometimes found on bushland localities. It is an abundant and conspicuous species, and it seems unlikely that it has been overlooked in Ghana and western Nigeria. It appears therefore that it has a strangely disjunct distribution, in the western part of West Africa (Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia) and again from eastern Nigeria and Cameroun.

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
The tadpoles are similar to those of Kassina cochranae, but body and fins are uniform, not mottled (Perret in. litt.).

Comments
This account was taken from "Treefrogs of Africa" by Arne Schiøtz with kind permission from Edition Chimaira publishers, Frankfurt am Main.

References

Schiøtz, A. (1999). Treefrogs of Africa. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt am Main.

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2008 Phlyctimantis boulengeri <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/3702> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Nov 23, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 23 Nov 2024.

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