Astylosternus laticephalus Roedel , Hillers, Leache , Kouame , Ofori-Boateng, Diaz & Sandberger, 2012

Griesbaum, Frederic, Hirschfeld, Mareike, F. Barej, Michael, Schmitz, Andreas, Rohrmoser, Mariam, Dahmen, Matthias, Muehlberger, Fabian, Christoph Liedtke, H., L. Gonwouo, Nono, Doumbia, Joseph & Roedel, Mark-Oliver, 2019, Tadpoles of three western African frog genera: Astylosternus Werner, 1898, Nyctibates Boulenger, 1904, and Scotobleps Boulenger, 1900 (Amphibia, Anura, Arthroleptidae), Zoosystematics and Evolution 95 (1), pp. 133-160 : 140-141

Astylosternus laticephalus Roedel, Hillers, Leache, Kouame, Ofori-Boateng, Diaz & Sandberger, 2012

Material examined.

ZMB 75460 (Gosner stage 39, Ghana, Afao Hills, 531 m, 6°15'19.36"N, 2°17'37.14"W, 28 March 2007, leg. C.O. Boateng & A. Hillers). This tadpole was already assigned to A. laticephalus and described in Rödel et al. (2012) and in Channing et al. (2012). The tail tip is lost, so total length was taken from Rödel et al. (2012). This specimen has various preservation artifacts.

Description.

Long tadpole with muscular tail; body oval in dorsal and lateral view (Fig. 8); snout broadly rounded in dorsal view, almost truncated in lateral view; body length 36.4% of total length; body height 29.5% of body length; body width 69.6% of body length; eyes positioned dorsolaterally, eye diameter 11.0% of body length; nostrils positioned dorsally, closer to snout tip than to eyes; inter-nostril distance 34.4% of interorbital distance; tail fins narrow, dorsal and ventral fin originating from tail base, ventral fin narrower, 82.6% of dorsal fin height; body height around 130% of maximum tail height; tail axis width 35.4% of body width; tail axis height 65.1% of maximum tail height; vent tube dextral, body with huge lateral sacs, extending from halfway in between eye level and spiracle to end of body; short spiracle (almost impossible to see), sinistral; mouth ventral and close to snout, mouth smaller than interorbital distance; labial tooth formula 1:1+1/1+1:2, the first pair rows in the lower lip are very close to each other ( Rödel et al. 2012 interpreted this as being 1:1+1/3); anterior lip with lateral papillae and large rostral gap; posterior lip with 1 or 2 rows of small, uniformly rounded papillae (Fig. 8c), which are as long as they are wide; black, massive, serrated jaws; upper jaw broadly arched with a small medial fang, lower jaw broadly V-shaped.

The maximum size of A. laticephalus tadpoles is estimated to be around 60-70 mm. The total length of ZMB 75460 is 62.1 mm.

Coloration in preservation.

General color light brown or beige, with irregular small brown spots covering body and tail; ventral surfaces of body more grayish, dark speckling almost absent; tail tip darker.