Natal Spiny Reed Frog (Frogs of South Africa)

Natal Spiny Reed Frog

Afrixalus spinifrons

Summary ⁵

The Natal Banana Frog (Afrixalus spinifrons) is a species of frog in the Hyperoliidae family. It is found in South Africa and possibly Lesotho. Its natural habitats are temperate forests, temperate shrubland, swamps, intermittent freshwater marshes, arable land, rural gardens, ponds, and canals and ditches. It is threatened by habitat loss.

Description ⁶

A small Afrixalus (males to 20 mm, females to 25 mm) from open vegetation in coastal KwaZulu/Natal, South Africa. Voice a buzzing. Dorsum dark with a pair of broad light dorsolateral bands from eye to groin. The pattern is rather constant. Black asperities on back with a concentration on the head and the bulbous snout. Ventrum whitish, gular disc dark yellow. Sympatric with A. delicatus, which has a pointed snout without black asperities.
Subspecies. – Pickersgill has established a subspecies, A. s. intermedius, for what was formerly regarded as the more north-easterly populations of A. knysnae. This form is intermediate between A. knysnae and A. s. spinifrons in most characters and it would seem as if a distinction between them at species level is unnecessary.

This account was taken from "Treefrogs of Africa" by Arne Schiøtz with kind permission from Edition Chimaira publishers, Frankfurt am Main.