New species of reed frog from the Congo basin with discussion of paraphyly in Cinnamon-belly reed frogs

Abstract

We describe a new species of Afrotropical reed frog, genus Hyperolius (Hyperoliidae), from Salonga National Park in the central Congo basin, Democratic Republic of Congo. Males and females have similar colour and pattern and are easily distinguished from other taxa by a relatively short and broad, bright yellow (in life), dorsolateral line ending in the sacral region and the presence of a light spot on the heel. In a 16S mitochondrial rRNA phylogeny, it clusters with samples allocable to the Cinnamon-belly reed frog, H. cinnamomeoventris. The new species, along with other morphologically well distinguished taxa, splits H. cinnamomeoventris into different non-sister clades. We discuss paraphyly of this reed frog in a taxonomic framework.