Texas Amphibians by Bob Tipton

Author:Bob Tipton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 2012-11-06T05:00:00+00:00

American Toad

Anaxyrus [Bufo] americanus, (Holbrook, 1836)

SIZE In Texas populations, these toads range from 44 to 70 mm (1.7 to 2.5 in.) in snout-vent length. Females are 20 percent larger than males on average.

DESCRIPTION These toads have a round, short body and a broad head with kidney-shaped parotoid glands that are usually separated from the cranial crests or connected by short spurs. There are enlarged warts on the tibia. The vocal sac is round when inflated. The background color can range across various shades of brown, gray, or olive; some individuals have a reddish overall appearance. The dorsal side may have spots that are brown or black with yellow, orange, red, or dark brown warts. Each spot contains only 1 or 2 warts. Dark pigment may occur on the chest and forward part of the abdomen. There is usually a light mid-dorsal stripe present. Males have dark-colored throats, and females are lighter overall and have white throats. Pupils are oval and black with a circle of gold around them. There are 4 toes on each front leg and 5 toes connected together by webbing on each hind leg.

VOICE The call is a rather long, high-pitched, sustained musical trill and may last 6–30 seconds, with a trill rate of about 30–40 individual pulses per second.

SIMILAR SPECIES Woodhouse’s Toad (Anaxyrus woodhousii) has a plain belly, and its warts are more numerous and nearly all the same size. In the American Toad, the cranial crest is separate or else barely touches the parotoid gland with a spur. In the Woodhouse’s Toad and Fowler’s Toad (A. fowleri), the cranial crest comes in direct contact with the parotoid gland.

DISTRIBUTION The American Toad ranges from southeastern and south-central Canada southward into the Carolinas, northern Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, adjacent areas of Louisiana, and then westward into northeast Texas and eastern Oklahoma and Kansas. There are isolated colonies in southeastern North Dakota, northeastern North Carolina, and Newfoundland.

NATURAL HISTORY These toads have been found in a wide variety of habitats, including gardens, fields, lawns, barnyards, river bottoms, and forest edges. They require shallow bodies of water in which to breed, moist hiding places, and an abundant supply of food items. They shelter from the heat under rocks and logs near preferred habitats, and in cold weather they dig backward into moist soil to hibernate. They are most active when the weather is warm and humid. This crepuscular to nocturnal toad preys on large quantities of beetles, crickets, leaf hoppers, snails, grasshoppers, spiders, moths, slugs, earthworms, and ants. Predators of tadpoles have been reported to be predaceous diving beetles, newts, dragonfly naiads, giant water bugs, crayfish, and sandpipers. Recorded predators of adults include hog-nosed snakes, water snakes, ducks, crows, screech owls, raccoons, skunks, and opossums.

REPRODUCTION Breeding occurs from February to July in shallow temporary ponds, ditches, or shallow, slow streams. At breeding sites are a number of males that do not call, but attempt to intercept females as they arrive. During reproduction, males have enlarged horny pads on the inside of each forelimb and the presence of a dark gray to black throat.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.