''Conraua'', known as slippery frogs or giant frogs is a genus of large

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 ...

s from

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

. ''Conraua'' is the only genus in the family Conrauidae. Alternatively, it may be placed in the family

Petropedetidae The Petropedetidae are a family of frogs containing two genera and 11 species. They are found in sub-Saharan tropical Africa and are sometimes known under common name African torrent frogs. They are inhabitants of the splash-water zone of clear ...

. This genus includes the largest frog of the world, ''

Conraua goliath The goliath frog (''Conraua goliath''), otherwise known commonly as the giant slippery frog and the goliath bullfrog, is a species of frog in the family Conrauidae. The goliath frog is the largest living frog. Specimens can reach up to about in ...

'', which may grow to in snout–vent length and weigh as much as . Four of the seven species in this genus are

threatened A threatened species is any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which is vulnerable to extinction in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensatio ...

Etymology

The generic name ''Conraua'' honours

Gustav Conrau Gustav Conrau (2 October 1865 – December 1899) was a German trader and explorer in the former German colony Kamerun. Apart from his mission of finding commercial opportunities for German trading companies, he acquired African traditional statu ...

, a German trader and labour recruiter in Cameroon who was the collector of the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

of ''

Conraua robusta ''Conraua robusta'', the robust giant frog or Cameroon slippery frog, is a species of frog in the family Conrauidae found in western Cameroon and eastern Nigeria. This species is congeneric to the goliath frog, the largest known frog species in t ...

'', the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

of the genus.

Species

The recognized species are: *''

Conraua alleni ''Conraua alleni'' or Allen's slippery frog is a species of frog in the family Conrauidae found in the Ivory Coast, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, along with a single outlying site in the Sui River Forest Reserve, Ghana. Its natural habitats a ...

'' *''

Conraua beccarii ''Conraua beccarii'' is a species of frog in the family Conrauidae found in Eritrea and Ethiopia. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist montane forest, subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland, subtropical or tropical high- ...

'' *''

Conraua crassipes ''Conraua crassipes'' is a species of frog in the family Conrauidae. It is found in eastern Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea (including the island of Bioko), Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Presumab ...

'' *''

Conraua derooi ''Conraua derooi'' is a species of frog in the family Conrauidae. It is found in the Togo-Volta Highlands along the border of Togo and Ghana, where it is possibly endemic. The common name Togo slippery frog has been coined for this species. Previ ...

'' Hulselmans, 1972 *''

'' (Boulenger, 1906) – goliath frog *''

Nieden Nieden ( Polabian ''Nadam''Schulz, Erwin (2007). ''Der Ortsnamen Detektiv: mittelalterliche Siedlungsnamen im Kreis Uecker-Randow (1121-1591) ; Ursprung, Details, Erklärungen ; mit einer Übersicht zu Ortsnamen ab 1600.'' Schibri-Verlag, p. 29. ...

, 1908 – Cameroon slippery frog *''

Conraua sagyimase ''Conraua'', known as slippery frogs or giant frogs is a genus of large frogs from sub-Saharan Africa. ''Conraua'' is the only genus in the family Conrauidae. Alternatively, it may be placed in the family Petropedetidae. This genus includes the ...

'' Neira-Salamea, Ofori-Boateng, Kouamé,

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the River Ribble, Ribble Valley, east of Preston ...

, Segniagbeto, Hillers, Barej, Leaché & Rödel, 2021 *'' Conraua kamancamarai'' Neira-Salamea, Doumbia, Hillers, Sandberger-Loua, Kouamé, Brede, Schäfer,

, Barej & Rödel, 2022 ''

Nota bene ( ; plural: ) is the Latin language, Latin phrase meaning ''note well''. In manuscripts, ''nota bene'' is abbreviated in upper-case as NB and N.B., and in lower-case as n.b. and nb; the editorial usages of ''nota bene'' and ''notate bene'' fi ...

'': A

binomial authority In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than ''Conraua''.

References

External links

* Amphibians of Sub-Saharan Africa Amphibian genera Taxa named by Fritz Nieden {{ranoidea-stub