Description
A medium-sized Leptopelis (males up to 40 mm) from the southern savannas with reduced webbing. Dorsum brown with a sometimes indistinct dark pattern, consisting of a darker bar between the eyes which may extend as a triangle backwards to join a pair of diverging dorsolateral bands. A dark line runs from the tip of the snout to the eye, continuing backwards a short distance behind the eye. Males with weakly developed pectoral glands. Voice a clack and a scream. The newly metamorphosed froglets are bright green, but later turn brown.

Tadpoles are elongated, with a tooth formula of 1,3+3/3.

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Angola, Burundi, Congo, the Democratic Republic of the, Rwanda, Zambia

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

Known from southern Angola, the north-western corner of Zambia and south-eastern R. D. Congo. No data are available as to its habitat requirements but all localities are in the savanna belt.

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
As in other members of the group, the voice consists of a scream and a clack.

An amplectant pair was found buried below the surface of the soil. After the parents had vacated the burrow, eggs were found in the soil.

Comments
In my 1975 paper I briefly mentioned 6 specimens of a Leptopelis from Zambia with a screaming voice, specimens which could not be named. Perret (1976) and Poynton (1985) have attempted to clarify the considerable uncertainty surrounding the name L. cynnamomeus (sometimes spelled L. cinnamomeus) and concluded that it should be applied to this form. To illustrate the confusion surrounding this name, in the past the name cynnamomeus has been applied to both parbocagii and mossambicus, while L. moroensis Laurent 1973 is considered a synonym of L. cynnamomeus. Part of what I termed L. cinnamomeus with some doubt in 1975 is treated by Poynton and Broadley as L. parbocagii. Poynton and Broadley note the morphological similarity between L. cynnamomeus and L. broadleyi. There is also a similarity in their voices, but males of cynnamomeus have weakly developed pectoral glands which are lacking in broadleyi.

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 Leptopelis cynnamomeus: Cinnamon Tree Frog <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/3646> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Nov 22, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 22 Nov 2024.

AmphibiaWeb's policy on data use.