Description
A small, compact frog with a moderately pointed snout and comparatively short legs. Males reach up to 34 mm (SVL), females up to 41 mm. The distance snout tip–nostril equals approximately the distance nostril–eye. An infratympanic ridge stretches to the forearms. The tympanum reaches 0.6–0.7 of the eye diameter. Males with paired lateral vocal sacs. The length of the vocal sac slits extending towards the base of the forearms equals the eye diameter. Instead of continuous dorsal ridges, numerous elongate warts are present on the back, forming approx. 11 rows. Dorsal skin feebly granulated. Short arms with broad fingers. Finger tips not enlarged. Hind legs with elongate warts. Additional subdigital tubercles on the metatarsus of the second to fourth toes. When the leg is pulled into the direction of the head, the tibiotarsal articulation extends no further than the nostrils. Two metatarsal tubercles, a large inner and small outer one, are present. The former reach half the length of the shortest toe. The webbing is incomplete (Angel 1949, Guibé & Lamotte 1955c, 1958a).
Coloration: Almost uniform slate gray or brown dorsum. The upper and lower lips are somewhat lighter, showing no dark markings. Dark transverse bands are present on the extremities. The dark outer parts of the thighs bear dark bars. The venter is white. Dark spots are occasionally scattered on the throat. On males the throat is sometimes spotted brown. The webs are pigmented.
Voice: Unknown.

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Guinea, Sierra Leone

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

Range: It has been observed in the Guinea and Sierra Leone parts of Mt. Nimba (Angel 1949, Guibé & Lamotte 1957, 1958a, Schiøtz 1964b, Frost 1985), as well as on Mt. Loma, Sierra Leone (Lamotte 1971).
Habitats: Savanna and grass steppe on the high plateau of the Mt. Nimba massif. In that region, the species inhabits savanna ponds at altitudes of 500–800 m (Angel 1949, Guibé & Lamotte 1958a, Schiøtz 1967). On Mont Loma, Sierra Leone, it lives in savannas at 400 m a.s.l. (Lamotte 1971).

Comments
This account was taken from Rödel, M.-O. (2000), Herpetofauna of West Africa vol. I. Amphibians of the West African Savanna, with kind permission from Edition Chimaira publishers, Frankfurt am Main.
For references in the text, see here

References

Rödel, M. O. (2000). Herpetofauna of West Africa, Vol. I. Amphibians of the West African Savanna. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt, Germany.

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2002 Ptychadena retropunctata <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/4952> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Dec 23, 2024.

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

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