Rana vertebralis Hewitt 1927

Conradie, Werner, Branch, William R. & Watson, Gillian, 2015, Type specimens in the Port Elizabeth Museum, South Africa, including the historically important Albany Museum collection. Part 1: Amphibians, Zootaxa 3936 (1) : -

Rana vertebralis Hewitt 1927

Records of the Albany Museum, 3(5): 404–407; Pl. XXIV, Fig. 2 . Current name: Amietia vertebralis (Hewitt, 1927)

Holotype: PEM A1550 (formerly AMG 5227); From a stream near the summit of Mont-aux-Sources, at the source of the Tugela River, Lesotho; R. Essex, January 1926.

Additional specimens (5): PEM A1551, 1552, 1555, 1562 and 10652 (formerly AM 5227); same details as holotype.

Remarks. Bates (2002) and Tarrant et al. (2008) referred to PEM A1550 as the holotype, this is correct as Hewitt (1927) referred to a single immature adult as the ‘type’. He also mentions another five smaller specimens (PEM A1551, 1552, 1555, 1562 and 10652 - formerly all AMG 5227) from the type locality, and a larger female (PEM A6202 - formerly AMG 5236) collected by J. A. Cottrell from Rebaneng Pass (p.405), which is not stated to form part of a type series and thus forms additional material only. The type description also refers to tadpoles (PEM T051 - formerly AMG 5234) collected by J. A. Cottrell at Thaba Putsua, and tadpoles (PEM T294 - formerly AMG 5227) collected by R. Essex in a pool near the summit of Mont-aux-Sources. Tadpole lateral head, dorsal head and labial teeth line drawings are illustrated in Fig. 2 in the type descriptions. The holotype and additional material discussed in the type description of Rana vertebralis have been badly damaged and must once have once completely desiccated. Full body X-rays (taken in 1968-1969) are available for all the material and desiccation must have therefore occurred after this date. Transferred to Amietia ( Dubois, 1987) .

Figures

FIGURE 2. Family Breviciptidae: A—Holotype of Breviceps acutirostris (PEM A 1540), B—Lectotype of Breviceps fuscus (PEM A 4826), C—Lectotype of Breviceps tympanifer (PEM A 4811), D—Lectotype of Breviceps parvus (PEM A 1534), E—Lectotype of Breviceps parvus caffer (PEM A 849).