20 SJOSTKDTS lUUMANn.JARO-iMEKU EXVKDITION. 4. 



BATRACHIA. 



In Professor YNGVE SJOSTEDT'S collection of Batrachia 21 species are represen- 

 ted by 398 specimens and some tadpoles. The fauna of German East Africa numbered 

 before this about 33 37 species of Batrachia Salientia - - an exact number cannot 

 be stated, as it depends upon, how many species of Rappia are admitted. Through 

 this collection not less than six species are added as new to the fauna of German 

 East Africa; and one of these is entirely new. One of the other novelties Rana fus- 

 ciyula is widely distributed in West and South Africa, one Phrynobatrachus ranoides 

 was before known from Natal, two, viz. Arthroleptis minutus and A. bottegi, have been 

 described from the Somaliland and the last Hylambates joknstoni from Northern 

 Nyassa land. There are certainly still many additions of Batrachia to be expected 

 before the fauna of East Africa is thoroughly known. If the specifically uncertain Rappia; 

 are left out, it will be found that the greatest part of the others are very widely dis- 

 tributed on the dark continent. Not less than 9 species are found practically all 

 over Africa, as well in its western and southern parts as in its eastern, 9 (perhaps 10) 

 are found both in West and East Africa, and 5 are common to South and East Africa. 

 The remaining ones belong, as far as hitherto is known, to the East African subregiou 

 but some of them are very widely distributed within the same. Three species (Phry- 

 nobatrachus acridoides, Arthroleptis minutus and A. bottegi} extend, for instance, in 

 northeasterly direction into Somaliland. Others have been found partly at the coast 

 and partly far in the interior. It is therefore difficult to decide whether any, or how 

 many species of Batrachia may regarded as endemic and exclusively confined to this 

 country. In some cases only a few specimens have been found and the knowledge 

 is thus scanty about such species. German East Africa as a whole, is not a zoo- 

 geographical unit and may therefore hardly be expected to include many endemic 

 Batrachia. There is, however, a possibility that the great mountains Kilimandjaro 

 and Meru may be inhabited by endemic species, and it seems even probable that the 

 new species of Rana, described below, will prove to be such a one. 



The batrachian fauna of the Kilimandjaro-Meru district was very little known 

 before, only a few species of Rana having been recorded. By Professor SJOSTEDT'S 

 collection the number of species from this district is at once increased to 17, most 

 of which have a very wide distribution, strange to say. 



