New paper in Salamandra
Amphibian diversity in Mauritania:a bioacoustics survey in the Diawling National Park
Alain Pagano, Ould Sehla Daf, Aziz Ballouche, Aude Nucia Taïbi, Ulrich Sinsch
Abstract : African biodiversity is poorly known compared with other continents, especially in arid Saharian and Sahelian areas. Current species accounts suggest that Mauritania is inhabited by six amphibian species in the Diawling National Park. Aims of our study were to describe the anuran soundscape at a selected breeding pond, to identify the species involved, and to provide the first quantitative description of the advertisement call of frogs tentatively assigned to Tomopterna milletihorsini.
The soundscape of the breeding pond included the vocalizations of four anuran species: Sclerophrys regularis (Reuss, 1833), S. xeros (Tandy, Tandy, Keith & Duff-MacKay, 1976), Hoplobatrachus occipitalis (Daudin, 1802), and Tomopterna milletihorsini (Angel, 1922). The first three species were identified on the basis of the typical structures of their advertisement calls, whereas the fourth call appeared to be as yet unknown to science. The species emitting the unknown advertisement call was morphologically identified as the Sand Frog Tomopterna milletihorsini, a name currently used for all West African populations by implication. The advertisement calls of all other species were described and call features agree largely with those published before.
We describe for the first time the advertisement call of Horsin’s Sand Frog Tomopterna milletihorsini. These frogs emitted short series (up to 6 calls) of medium-pitched calls with two almost equally loud frequency bands of 1300–1400 and 2700–2800 Hz, respectively. The amplitude of pulses rose gradually from the first to the last one of a call. The pulses were much longer than those of any of the other local species and equally spaced from each other. The call differed from that of Tomopterna delalandii from Nigeria by having considerably fewer pulses per call. Thus, we here provide bioacoustic evidence for the specific distinction between T. delalandii and T. milletihorsini, which has previously been based only on molecular data.
