Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
only from a single locality, Lupanga peak in the
Ulugurus, and from Mwanihana Forest in the
Uzungwas. The chameleons Bradpodion
oyrh inum and Chamaeleo wenei are known rom
several localiies in both ranges.
Moving further south, fewer species appear to
have been isolated in both the Uzungwas and the
Southern Highlands. The toad Bufo uzunguensis is
a small species which is extremely difficult to
ideniy and at least one of the paratypes listed by
Loveridge in his original descripion does not
belong to this species (Grandison, 1972). The
viper Adenorhinos barbouri is known from only a
few specimens and nothing is known about its
bioloy.
Little is known about the status of the
chameleons Chamaeleo fu lleboni and Chamaeleo
inconutus, which are not ound in the Uzungwas
but which occur in he Poroto Mountains in the
case of the former and in the Ukinga and
Southen Highlands area in the case of the latter.
The forest marsh snake Na triciteres vaiegata has
been recorded from Rungwe Mountain and the
Matengo highlands.
The following species are shared only by the
East and West Usambaras: the frogs Hop lophyne
rogersi and Ph ynobatrachus krti, the caecilian
Boulengerula boulengeri, the chameleons
Bradypodion sp inosum, Chamaeleo eremensis and
Rhampholeon temporalis and the snake Dipsaoboa
wenei.
The frogs Athrolptis tanneri, Hp erolius tannei
and Parahoplophyne usambarensis and the burrow-
ing skink Proscelotes egeli are endemic to the West
Usambaras and the gecko Lygoaylus gravis is
endemic to the East Usambaras.
Some species have been isolated on mountain
forests of the Easten Arc and in smaller, often
lower and drier, forests nearer the coast. These
include the anurans Metensophyne miranotis,
Leptopelis iavomacuatus and Sp elaeophyne meth-
neri. The affiniies of a toad in the genus
St ephopaedes collected in 1989 at Rondo and
Kiwengoma Forest are sill being evaluated;
members of the genus are known from Mahenge
in Tanzania, in westen Mozambique and in
Zimbabwe.
Repiles with a similar distribuion p attern
include the chameleon Bradypodion tenue, the
pygmy chameleon Rhampholeon brachyurus, the
lacertid Gastropholis prasina, and the snakes
Aparalatus wenei, Philothamnus macrops and
Daspeltis medici.
Only one of the Usambara endemics,
Phynobatrach us krti, can be considered a spe-
cies with a potenially good dispersing ability, as it
can readily move along streams, yet even it is
found only in the Usambaras. All the others
would appear to be poor dispersers. This is
certainly true of the two burrowing forms, the
caecilian and skink. The other frogs are known
from only very few specimens from resricted
localiies, and Arth rolptis tanneri (Grandison,
1983) and Hy perolius tanneri (Schi0tz, 1982) were
described only recently. Forest chameleons in
general appear to be poor dispersers and this
might also be true for orest species of Lygoac-
tylus, as other forms are isolated on different
mountain forests. The snake genus Dipsaoboa
contains both forest and non-forest species; only
Dipsaoboa wenei appears to have been ·isolated
in the Usambara forests.
Currently the Uluguru forests appear to con-
tain the highest number (12) of endemic species
of any block in the enire Tanganyika-Ny asa
system. These include two toads, Nectophynoides
cptus and Netophynoies minutus, both only
recently recognised as ull species disinct from
Nectophynoies viviparus (Perret, 1971). Two
microhylid frogs, Probrevicps uluguruensis and
Hplophyne uluuuensis and wo caecilians, Af ro -
caecilia u/uguuensis and Sco/ecomophus uluuu-
ensis complete the list of Uluguru endemic
amphibians. The endemic repiles are the lizards
Lygotylus williamsi and Cnemaspis barbouri. The
former is known only from Kimboza Forest
and the latter has only been recently described
(Perret, 1986). A skink, Scelotes u/uguuensis and
three snakes, Ty phlops uluguruensis, Prosymna
onatissima and Geodipsas procterae are all Uluguru
endemics; the first two of these are modified for
burrowing; little is known about the ecoloy
of the third, which is known only from a few
specimens.
The Uzungwa forests harbour five endemic
species. A new species of Netophynoides toad has
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