Two new cryptic species of breviceps (Anura: Microhylidae) from Southern Africa

Abstract

Breviceps sopranus sp. nov. and Breviceps bagginsi sp. nov. are described and distinguished from other sympatric Breviceps spp. by the structure of their advertisement calls: a long, unpulsed, high‐pitched whistle in the former, and a high‐pitched trill of moderate length in the latter. The species are similar, morphologically, to one another and to B. mossambicus populations in KwaZulu‐Natal. Morphological and call differences between the new species and sympatric Breviceps spp. are described.