''Werneria'', also known as the torrent toads or smalltongue toads, is a small genus of "true toads", family

Bufonidae {{Cat main, Toad This category Category, plural categories, may refer to: General uses *Classification, the general act of allocating things to classes/categories Philosophy * Category of being * ''Categories'' (Aristotle) * Category (Kant) * C ...

. They are found in western

Central Africa Central Africa (French language, French: ''Afrique centrale''; Spanish language, Spanish: ''África central''; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''África Central'') is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries accordin ...

(Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Cameroon), with the greatest

species richness Species richness is the number of different species represented in an community (ecology), ecological community, landscape or region. Species richness is simply a count of species, and it does not take into account the Abundance (ecology), abunda ...

in the

Western High Plateau The Western High Plateau, Western Highlands or Bamenda Grassfields is a region of Cameroon characterised by high relief, cool temperatures, heavy rainfall and savanna vegetation. The region lies along the Cameroon line and consists of mounta ...

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 ...

. The species generally have restricted or patchy distributions and are considered

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 genus is named after

Franz Werner Franz Josef Maria Werner (15 August 1867 in Vienna – 28 February 1939 in Vienna) was an Austrian zoologist and explorer. Specializing as a herpetologist and entomologist, Werner described numerous species and other taxa of frogs, snakes, inse ...

, Austrian zoologist and herpetologist who was active in Africa.

Description

''Werneria'' are medium-sized toads with a snout-to-vent length between ; females tend to be larger than males. They do not have hearing organs,

vocal sac The vocal sac is the flexible Biological membrane, membrane of skin possessed by most male frogs and toads. The purpose of the vocal sac is usually as an amplification of their mating or advertisement call. The presence or development of the voca ...

s (they are silent), nor

parotoid gland The parotoid gland (alternatively, paratoid gland) is an external skin gland on the back, neck, and shoulder of some frogs (especially toads), and salamanders. It can secrete a number of milky alkaloid substances (depending on the species) known ...

s. Skin is smooth. Toe webbing ranges from rudimentary to full.

Tadpole A tadpole or polliwog (also spelled pollywog) is the Larva, larval stage in the biological life cycle of an amphibian. Most tadpoles are fully Aquatic animal, aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial animal, ...

s have a short, muscular tail and a flat body with a huge sucker mouth.

Species

Habitat

''Werneria'' are associated with torrential forest streams, which also is their breeding habitat. Tadpoles use their sucker mouth to cling to the rocks. Outside the breeding season, adult toads can be found in leaf litter far away from streams. They are known from altitudes between

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q547143 Amphibians of Sub-Saharan Africa Amphibian genera