Systematics of the poorly known treefrog Leptopelis fiziensis (Anura: Arthroleptidae), with a description of its call

Abstract

Leptopelis fiziensis was described as a subspecies of L. modestus from specimens that were collected in 1956 in the region in and around Fizi, in present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo. We recently discovered L. fiziensis in transitional and montane forest near the type locality and the south-eastern Itombwe Plateau, respectively. A phylogenetic analysis (16S mitochondrial sequence data) of these samples and other Leptopelis species recovered L. fiziensis as sister to L. karissimbensis with strong support, and rejected a close relationship between L. fiziensis and both topotypic L. modestus from Cameroon and L. mackayi from Kenya. Herein, we provide a detailed description of the morphometrics, colour pattern, male advertisement call and natural history of this little-known species. At least one literature record of L. fiziensis from Tanzania has notable differences from our data, and requires further study to ascertain its taxonomic status.