Fornasini's Spiny Reed Frog (Frogs of South Africa)

Fornasini's Spiny Reed Frog

Afrixalus fornasini

Summary ⁴

Afrixalus fornasini is a species of frog in the Hyperoliidae family and is native to Africa. Its common name is Fornasini's spiny reed frog or the Greater Leaf-folding Frog

Description ⁵

A very large (30–40 mm) Afrixalus from the savannas of eastern and southern Africa; dark with broad light silverish dorsolateral bands from tip of snout to anus. The bands meet posteriorly, not anteriorly. About half the specimens in northern populations (Tanzania and Kenya) have the entire dorsum silverish white. Upper side of tibia white.
The males have numerous large conspicuous black-tipped asperities on head, back, dorsal surfaces of limbs and around the anus. The females have smaller asperities.
Pickersgill (1996) regard the populations where the uniform-backed specimens occur as a separate species, Afrixalus unicolor (Boettger 1913), without arguing for its specific distinctness. Drewes & Altig (1996) have reported that A. fornasini preys on eggs and developing larvae of other frogs (Chiromantis xerampelina, Hyperolius sp. and A. fornasini).
Voice. – A typical Afrixalus sound, but loud, slow and low-pitched as can be expected from such a large animal. The voice has been compared with the stuttering of a minute machine-gun by Wager. There is a slow, creaking initial sound followed by a series of figures at a rate of 5–10 per second and with a frequency-intensity maximum at about 2500 cps.