Ptychadena taenioscelis Laurent, 1954

Figure 7Q

Material. ANGOLA – Cabinda Province • Tando Zinze; –5.3241, 12.5073; 29 m a.s.l.; P1.141; GenBank: PQ455938 .

Identification. A small (SVL = 35–40 mm) grass frog with a compact body and long legs. Dorsum brownish with distinctive and continuous skin folds from the posterior part of the eye to lower back. Red to yellow thin vertebral stripe surrounded by numerous black spots (Channing and Rödel 2019). The specimen reported here is identical (16S p -distance) to material from Nyanga, Gabon (GenBank: KY080398) and almost identical (0.2% 16S p -distance) to material from Likouala, Republic of the Congo (GenBank: KY080399). However, the species was originally described from Tanganyika Province, DRC, from where genetic material is not available. Therefore, due to the high diversification of this group we recommend future efforts to obtain topotypic material from Lukuka, Tanganyika Province, DRC, to compare against this available material from west Central Africa. Nevertheless, a preliminary 16S ML tree clusters in the Cabinda Province material with material from Gabon, which has been regarded as nominotypical P. taenioscelis (Conradie 2024) .

Biology and distribution. Ptychadena taenioscelis is widely distributed in humid savannahs, woodlands and secondary forest in the southern rim of the Congo Basin (Channing and Rödel 2019). In Cabinda Province, the species was only found in the Littoral Peneplain near plantations and degraded secondary forest.