Anaxyrus speciosus (Girard, 1854)
Bufo speciosus Girard, 1854, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 7: 86. Syntypes: USNM 2608 (Ringgold Barracks = Rio Grande City, Starr County, Texas, USA), 2610 (Brownsville, Cameron County, Texas, USA), 2611 and 131559 (Pesquiería Grande, Nuevo León, Mexico) according to Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 37. Kellogg, 1932, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 160: 46, mentions only three types and does not include 131559. Type locality: "valley of the Río Bravo (Rio Grand del Norte) and to be not uncommon in the province [state] of New Leon [Nuevo León, Mexico]". Restricted to "Brownsville, Cameron County", Texas, USA, by Smith and Taylor, 1950, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 33: 361.
Bufo spectabilis — Peters, 1874 "1873", Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1873: 747. Incorrect subsequent spelling of Bufo speciosus Girard.
Bufo lentiginosus speciosus — Garman, 1884, Bull. Essex Inst., 16: 43. by implication.
Bufo speciosus — Garman, 1888 "1887", Bull. Essex Inst., 19: 136. Bogert, 1960, in Lanyon and Tavolga (eds.), Anim. Sound Commun.: 195, 273; provisional elevation.
Bufo compactilis speciosus — Cope, 1889, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 34: 273. Smith, 1947, Herpetologica, 4: 8.
Bufo pliocompactilis Wilson, 1968, Contr. Mus. Paleontol. Univ. Michigan, 22: 95. Holotype: UMMP V55430, a near complete left frontoparietal, by original designation. Type locality: WaKeeney, Ogalalla Formation, Trego County, Kansas, USA. [Miocene (Clarendonian) fossil.] A likely synonym of "Bufo compactilis" (in the sense of being what is now called Bufo specious) by Sanchíz, 1998, Handb. Palaeoherpetol., 4: 126.
Anaxyrus speciosus — Frost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, de Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green, and Wheeler, 2006, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 297: 363.
English Names
Western Toad (Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 23).
Spadefoot Toad (as Bufo compactilis sensu lato: Strecker, 1915, Baylor Bull., 18: 51; Wright and Wright, 1933, Handb. Frogs Toads U.S. Canada: x).
Spade-footed Toad (as Bufo compactilis sensu lato: Wright and Wright, 1933, Handb. Frogs Toads U.S. Canada: 60).
Sonoran Toad (as Bufo compactilis sensu lato: Slevin, 1928, Occas. Pap. California Acad. Sci., 16: 97).
Sonoran Toad (Stebbins, 1951, Amph. W. North Am.: 255).
Northern Sonora Toad (Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 62).
Texas Toad (Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 176; Stebbins, 1966, Field Guide W. North Am. Rept. Amph.: 63; Conant, 1975, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am., Ed. 2: 313; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 11; Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 17; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 43; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 11; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 8; Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 215; Frost, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2008, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 37: 4; Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 8; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 6; Frost, McDiarmid, Mendelson, and Green, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 13).
Distribution
Southeastern New Mexico and western Oklahoma (USA) south throughout central and West Texas to central Tamaulipas, northern Nuevo León, northern and eastern Coahuila, and northeastern Chihuahua (Mexico).
Comment
In the Bufo cognatus group of Blair, 1972, Evol. Genus Bufo: 349. See comment under Bufo cognatus. Older literature confused this species with Anayxrus cognatus, Anayxrus mexicanus, and Anayxrus compactilis. Removed from the synonymy of Anayxrus compactilis (as Bufo) by Bogert, 1960, in Lanyon and Tavolga (eds.), Anim. Sound Commun.: 195, 273, where it had been placed (as Bufo spectabilis) by Peters, 1874 "1873", Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1873: 747 (although this had been disputed by Garman, 1888 "1887", Bull. Essex Inst., 19: 136). See Rogers, 1972, Copeia, 1972: 381-383, for discussion of morphological distinctiveness from other members of its species group. Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 215-216, provided a brief account, figure, and map.
External Links
Please note: these links will take you to external websites not affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History. We are not responsible for their content.
- For additional sources of information from other sites search Google
- For images search Arkive, CalPhoto Images and Google Images
- To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
- For information aggregation from other sites and some original accounts see AmphibiaWeb report
- For further information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
- For related information on conservation and images as well as observation see iNaturalist;
- for a quick link to their maps see iNaturalist KML
- For access to informatoin on fossils see Lisanfos
