Bioacoustics of Hemisus marmoratus

HABITAT. — Hemisus marmoratus was difficult to see during our survey periods and is probably much more abundant in convenient habitat and at the right saison. We found this fossorial species in the vicinity of a paddy field on the “Ancien barrage” edge in Koubri, on a trail leading to a small water body in W National Park. We heard the male calling under flooded grasses around a pond ( 1 km southwest of the Kabougou forest post office) in W National Park. The species was also found in Baboro swampy valley in Comoé-Léraba where males could be heard calling among grasses nearby a small water body in Folonzo village swampy valley on 6 August 2018 . This was unusual as Hemisus usually breeds in the early rainy season or even before the rains set in (see e.g. Rödel et al. 1995 ; Kaminsky et al. 1999 ). In a floodplain near Bouliabou pond, we heard males calling and recorded three males in Arly National Park. In the Sahelian part, we captured this species during rainy weather on sandy soils close to a millet field in N’Djomga and on the roadside in Yakouta. Hemisus marmoratus is mostly fossorial, in relatively moist, loose soils and is often captured during earthworks such as plowing fields ( Lamotte & Xavier 1981 ; Rödel 2000 ). The species is common and reported having a wide distribution range from West Africa south to Angola and South Africa ( Laurent 1972 ; Rödel 2000 ). However, several cryptic taxa are probably mixed under this name (M.-O. Rödel, unpublished data).