Kassina maculata

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kassina maculata
Kassina maculuata.jpg

Kassina maculata

Systematics
without rank: Amphibians (Lissamphibia)
Order : Frog (anura)
Subordination : Neobatrachia
Family : Reed frogs (Hyperoliidae)
Genre : Kassina
Type : Kassina maculata
Scientific name
Kassina maculata
( A. Duméril , 1853)

Kassina maculata (also known as Rotschenkel stain frog , Rotbeiniger race frog , Rotschenkelfrosch , Gefleckter race frog , stain frog , stains racing frog and Rotbeiniger leopard frog referred to) is a Riedfrosch whose inner sides of the limbs, such as the trivial names are colored red to indicate.

features

Kassina maculata is one of the larger representatives of the reed frogs, with the males reaching a length of 55–65 mm. The skin is smooth, the belly warty, the muzzle rounded. The back is gray with black, oval, thin, light-rimmed spots, the belly whitish, sometimes with dark spots. The insides of the limbs, groin, and armpits are bright red with black spots. The finger and toe discs are clearly visible and wider than the diameter of the subarticular tubercles (tubercles / cusps located under the joints). The eyes have a perpendicular pupil . The iris is brown, not golden yellow as in Kassina senegalensis .

The call of Kassina maculata consists of an irregular sequence of short syllables that extend over a wide frequency range, the calls are higher and shorter than those of Kassina senegalensis and Kassina wealei , with which it occurs sympathetically in eastern South Africa . The species usually calls out from the water surface, between aquatic vegetation in the riparian zone of the breeding waters.

distribution and habitat

The distribution area of Kassina maculata extends in eastern Africa from Witu on the coast of Kenya to the south via Tanzania and Mozambique to KwaZulu-Natal in eastern South Africa . In the interior of Africa, the distribution area extends into southern Malawi , eastern Zimbabwe and eastern Swaziland . The species is also found on Zanzibar . Kassina maculata is generally a lowland dweller , but also occurs in Bvumba in Zimbabwe up to an altitude of 1,400 meters.

The habitat of Kassina maculata is the savannah , grass and scrubland as well as agricultural areas.

Way of life

Kassina maculata does not hopping like most frogs, but rather walking (with alternating leg movements of the hind legs) (hence the running frog). When it encounters potential predators, it does not try to flee, but takes a defensive stance (a form of thanatose ): The frog curls up with its head pointing down and pulls all limbs close to the body. The striking red color markings are not exposed, but hidden. The species has poisonous skin secretions, some of which affect the heart activity of mammals.

The egg-laying takes place preferably in large, well-covered, temporary and permanent waters. The eggs are attached to submerged plants. The tadpoles are quite large with a length of 13 cm (4 cm plus 9 cm tail). Their tail is high, but not as high as that of Kassina senegalensis . The tadpoles live freely swimming ( nectonically ), not on the bottom of the water.

Systematics

The species was first described by Auguste Duméril in 1853 as Hylambates maculatus . In 1931, Parker described another species of amphibian under the same name (now Kassina cochranae Loveridge, 1941), which led to some confusion in taxonomy. The genus Kassina comprises 16 species that all live in Africa and belongs to the family Hyperoliidae. This belongs to a clade of related African families, the representatives of which are mostly either tree-living or burrowing, which various authors call Arthroleptoidae (Dubois 1992), Brevicipitoidae Bonaparte, 1850 or Afrobatrachia Frost et al. Was named in 2006.

On the basis of phylogenomic studies (sequence comparison of the 16S rRNA of the recombinase gene Rag1), Kassina proved to be monophyletic and (tested Kassina maculata ) to be closely related to the genera Hyperolius (tested Hyperolius viridiflavus ) and Heterixalus (tested Heterixalus tricolor ). The affiliation of Kassina thus appears to be certain and a monophyly of the Hyperoliidae probable.

Danger

Due to the wide distribution, the tolerance of different habitats and the presumably large population, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) classifies Kassina maculata as not endangered (Least Concern, LC).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Vincent Carruthers (editor): The Wildlife of Southern Africa: A Field Guide to the Animals and Plants of the Region. Struik Publishers, 2005, ISBN 978-1868724512 , p. 78.
  2. ↑ a b Amphibia Web: Kassina maculata
  3. ^ Frank Glaw & Miguel Vences (1997): Anuran eye coloration: definitions, variation, taxonomic implications and possible functions. Herpetologia Bonnensis 1997 (Proceedings of the 8th Ordinary General Meeting of the Societas Europaea Herpetologica, 23-27 August 1995, Bonn, Germany): 125-138.
  4. ^ Alan Channing (1976): Pre-Mating Isolation in the Genus Kassina (Amphibia, Anura, Rhacophoridae) in Southern Africa. Journal of Herpetology Vol. 10, No. 1: 19-23.
  5. ↑ a b c d Kassina maculata in the Red List of Threatened Species of the IUCN 2011.2. Posted by: Martin Pickersgill, Arne Schiøtz, Kim Howell, Leslie Minter, 2004. Retrieved March 21, 2012.
  6. ↑ AN Ahn, E. Furrow, AA Biewener (2004): Walking and running in the red-legged running frog, Kassina maculata. Journal of Experimental Biology 207 (3): 399-410.
  7. ^ H. Christoph Liedtke & Hendrik Müller (2012): Defensive behavior of Kassina maculata (Anura: Hyperoliidae). Herpetology Notes, volume 5: 309-310.
  8. ↑ Chen, H., Wang, L., Zeller, M., Hornshaw, M., Wu, Y., Zhou, M., Li, J., Hang, X., Caid, J., Chen, T. , Shaw, C. (2011): Kassorins: novel innate immune system peptides from skin secretions of the African hyperoliid frogs, Kassina maculata and Kassina senegalensis. Molecular Immunology 48: 442-451. doi : 10.1016 / j.molimm.2010.09.018
  9. ↑ Xiaohe Li, Wanyu Feng, Mei Zhou, Chengbang Ma, Tianbao Chen, Martin Zeller, Martin Hornshaw, Lei Wang, Chris Shaw (2011): Kasstasin: A novel potent vasoconstrictor peptide from the skin secretion of the African red-legged running frog , Kassina maculata. Biochemistry Volume 93, Issue 9: 1537-154. doi : 10.1016 / j.biochi.2011.05.009
  10. ↑ Vincenzo Mercurio, Wolfgang Böhme, Bruno Streit (2009): Reproductive diversity of Malawian anurans. Herpetology Notes, volume 2: 175-183.
  11. ↑ African Amphibians Lifedesk: Kassina Girard, 1853
  12. ↑ Christina M. Richards, William S. Moore (1996): A Phylogeny for the African Treefrog Family Hyperoliidae Based on Mitochondrial rDNA. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution Volume 5, Issue 3: 522-532. doi : 10.1006 / mpev.1996.0047
  13. ↑ A. van der Meijden, M. Vences, A. Meyer (2004): Novel phylogenetic relationships of the enigmatic brevicipitine and scaphiophrynine toads as revealed by sequences from the nuclear Rag-1 gene. Proceedings of the Royal Society London Series B Supplement 271: S378-S381. doi : 10.1098 / rsbl.2004.0196

Web links

Commons : Kassina maculata  - collection of images, videos and audio files