EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Puddle Frog

Puddle Frog (Phrynobatrachus aff. liberiensis), Family Phrynobatrachidae
Monkoto, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Explanation:  Tiny, mud-colored, and cryptic is this bit of a biological puzzle.

This is a species of puddle frog from the heart of the Congo River Basin in central tropical Africa.  I found this individual in a small ... well, a puddle ... in the remote jungles of Salonga National Park. 

But, who is this, really?  

A knowledgeable researcher (see Acknowledgments, below) identified it as a species of Phrynobatrachus, or puddle frog, but the species is uncertain.  It is not P. auritus (golden puddle frog) or P. plicatus (coast river frog), because the ridges on the back are different.  It somewhat resembles P. batesii (no common name; and this name might consist of more than one species itself), but doesn't quite fit that species, either.  

It most seems to resemble P. liberiensis (Liberia river frog), but that species occurs only in West Africa, well outside the central Congo region.  

Here, my specimen is labeled "Phrynobatrachus aff. liberiensis," where "aff." (or "affin." or "affinis," Latin for "affinity") refers to resembling the noted species but acknowledging differences.  

So from an unnamed puddle in the jungle comes this potentially undescribed species.  Whether it is common or rare, secure or threatened, is totally unknown.  

  
Acknowledgments:
     I am very grateful for communications from Dr. Mark-Oliver Rödel, Professor at the Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocenter of the University Würzburg, Germany, for his help in identifying this puzzler.  Dr. Rödel provided the information provided above on comparison species.