''Amnirana albolabris'' is a species of

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...

in the family Ranidae. It is widely distributed in Sub-Saharan

West West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

and

Middle Africa Central Africa ( French: ''Afrique centrale''; Spanish: ''África central''; Portuguese: ''África Central'') is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Middle Africa is an anal ...

. However, the nominal species includes at least one undescribed species west of Benin; the formal taxonomic changes to split the species have not yet been done. Common names white-lipped frog and forest white-lipped frog has been coined for it, whereas Bamileke Plateau frog refers to now- synonymized ''Amnirana longipes'' (=''Hylarana longipes'').

Distribution

''Amnirana albolabris'' occurs in West Africa (from west to east:

Guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

Liberia Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

Togo Togo, officially the Togolese Republic, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to Ghana–Togo border, the west, Benin to Benin–Togo border, the east and Burkina Faso to Burkina Faso–Togo border, the north. It is one of the le ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

) and in Middle Africa (from north to south and east:

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to Central African Republic–Chad border, the north, Sudan to Central African Republic–Sudan border, the northeast, South Sudan to Central ...

Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. It has an area of . Formerly the colony of Spanish Guinea, its post-independence name refers to its location both near the Equ ...

Gabon Gabon ( ; ), officially the Gabonese Republic (), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and ...

Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo), is a country located on the western coast of Central ...

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

Burundi Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is located in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa, with a population of over 14 million peop ...

, and

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

). There seems to be a gap in the distribution between western Togo and western Nigeria.

Phylogeny and taxonomy

''Amnirana albolabris'' includes two very distinct lineages. The western component includes most of the West African populations and is the

sister taxon In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

of '' Amnirana fonensis''. The Central African component also includes the Nigerian populations and is the sister taxon of '' Amnirana asperrima''. The type locality of ''Amnirana albolabris'' is given as "West Africa", but later researchers have deduced that the correct locality is Gabon. The name ''Amnirana albolabris'' therefore refers to the Central African component. However, molecular data suggest that ''Amnirana longipes'' (Perret, 1960) is embedded within the Central African ''Amnirana albolabris'' and the former should therefore considered junior synonym of the latter.

Description

Adult females measure in snout–vent length. The snout is slightly rounded and the eyes are prominent. The tympanum is visible. The fingers have no webbing but the toes are webbed.

Habitat and conservation

''Amnirana albolabris'' is found in secondary habitats and heavily degraded former forest in the forest zone as well as in gallery forests in the humid

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

zone. While in West Africa, it occurs in closed-canopy forest and in secondary habitats, it avoids closed forest in central Africa. Individuals are usually found low in the vegetation. West African populations breed in large temporary ponds and in permanent streams, while the central African ones breed in still-water ponds, marshes, raphia swamps and creeks. It is a very common and adaptable species that is unlikely to suffer from other than localized threats. It occurs in many protected areas.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q28049987, from2=Q28008709 albolabris Frogs of Africa Amphibians of West Africa Amphibians of Angola Amphibians of Burundi Amphibians of Cameroon Amphibians of the Central African Republic Amphibians of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Amphibians of Equatorial Guinea Amphibians of Gabon Amphibians of Kenya Amphibians of the Republic of the Congo Amphibians of Rwanda Amphibians of Tanzania Amphibians of Uganda Taxa named by Edward Hallowell (herpetologist) Amphibians described in 1856 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot