XXX V 
REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS FROM LIBERIA 
By T. Barsour AND A. LOVERIDGE 
THERE is probably no easily accessible region in all Africa which has received so 
little attention from herpetologists as Liberia. The paucity of literature on the 
reptile fauna of this area is well illustrated by the bibliography which is attached 
to the present paper. In 1921 Chabanaud reported on thirteen species of am- 
phibia which he collected at Sanikole in the north-east of the country. Until 
then there were about six species known from Liberia. 
Dr. Glover Allen and his associates of the Harvard African Expedition of 
1927, under the leadership of Professor R. P. Strong, have more than doubled 
the number of recorded amphibia, for they secured thirty-three species. They 
are also to be congratulated on the remarkably fine reptilian collection repre- 
senting forty-one species many of which are recorded from Liberia for the first 
time. 
The most interesting novelty is a strange Xenopus-like Rana which, in a pre- 
liminary description published in the Proceedings of the New England Zoological 
Club of 1927, we referred to a new genus Pseudoxenopus. Dr. Noble, however, 
has pointed out that the characters on which this was founded are those of ju- 
venile Rana where ossification of cartilaginous parts of the girdle takes place in 
later life. The species allenz, while distinct from Rana occipitalis, is undoubtedly 
closely related to that species. 
The following species were described from the collection. 
Rana alleni sp. n. Cardioglossa liberiensis sp. n. 
Phrynobatrachus liberiensis sp. n. Hyperolius festivus sp. n. 
Cardioglossa decorata sp. n. Lygodactylus strongi sp. n. 
Of the thirty-three species recorded from Liberia for the first time most note- 
worthy are the series of Riopa dura (Cope) which is very rare in collections. It 
is also of interest to know that the arboreal cobra — Naja goldii — occurs here. 
Dr. Allen got no fewer than six species of Arthroleptis, a genus hitherto un- 
recorded from Liberia. Doubtless Chabanaud’s records of Phrynobatrachus 
natalensis, and its synonym P. boulengeri from Sanikole, are identical with one 
or another of the five species collected by Dr. Allen. The genus is badly in need 
of revision as so many of its species apparently show considerable variation. 
Dr. Allen’s very interesting field notes are well worthy of quotation. 
To render the present paper more useful we have appended a list of all other 
reptiles and amphibians known to occur in Liberia, though not obtained by the 
Harvard Expedition. 
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