Description
A large forest Afrixalus (males 25–34 mm, females 30–38 mm) from R. D. Congo. The pattern is rather constant with an almost square dark dorsal spot.

This form has previously been regarded as a subspecies of three other Afrixalus species (A. fornasini, A. dorsalis, A. congicus), but its status as a full species was established by Laurent (1982) and Schiøtz (1982). In habitat preference and morphology it is quite similar to the West African A. nigeriensis but it lacks the dark lumbar band which is almost always present in A. nigeriensis.

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Congo, the Democratic Republic of the

	View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.
	View Bd and Bsal data (5 records).

South-eastern R. D. Congo, thus probably also R. Congo. Forest in central lowlands.

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
The voice consists of an initial sound and a small number of identical figures with a frequency-intensity maximum at 2000-2500 cps. and a rate of 15-20 per second.

Comments
It would not be a surprise if further studies show that A. equatorialis and A. nigeriensis are subspecies of one species but, strangely enough, a vicariant to these forms (from dense forest habitats) is not known from Cameroun.

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

Updated by A. Schiøtz, 2008.

References

Laurent, R.F. (1982). ''Le genre Afrixalus LAURENT (Hyperoliidae) en Afrique Centrale.'' Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika Tervuren Belgie Annalen Zoologische Wetenschappen, (235), 1-58.

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

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2008 Afrixalus equatorialis <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/450> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Dec 31, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 31 Dec 2024.

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