IUCN Red List Category: (Draft)
Animalia | Chordata | Vertebrata | Reptilia | Squamata | Sauria | Chamaeleonidae | Kinyongia | Kinyongia adolfifriderici |
Taxonomic notes: Accepted as Kinyongia adolfifriderici in Tilbury and Tolley (2009), however there is considerable uncertainty with the taxonomic status of many populations (Greenbaum et al. 2012). The recent recognition that Kinyongia gyrolepis, a "superficially similar" species, is a sister taxon to Ugandan K. adolfifriderici, renders K. adolfifriderici as paraphyletic (Greenbaum et al. (2012).
The type locality, "Irumu-Mavambi Urwald", provided by Sternfeld (1912) is considered vague, as Irumu and Mavambi (now Mawambi) are separate localities around 150 km apart along the Ituri River (Greenbaum et al. 2012), in the Orientale Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Both sites are however in areas of historical lowland rainforest, and this and other historical collections, from Medje and from "lowland and montane" areas of Rwanda and Uganda (Greenbaum et al. 2012 and references therein), show that the species occurs in lowland rainforest. The only recent records are from Afromontane forests in the Albertine Rift. Given that recent studies suggest the presence of multiple taxa within K. adolfifriderici, it is possible that lowland and montane populations belong to different species. Should this be the case, the name K. adolfifriderici would be applicable to the lowland populations conspecific with material from Ituri (Greenbaum et al. 2012). Furthermore, the isolated montane forest fragments along the Albertine Rift (e.g. Bwindi Forest, Nyungwe Forest) may house additional cryptic species.
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