Bufotes variabilis (Pallas, 1769)
Rana variabilis Pallas, 1769, Spicilegia Zool., Fasc. 7: 1, pl. 6, figs. 1, 2. Types: Including frogs "in Edleri Museo" as well as frog figured in tab. 6, figs. 3 and 4, according to the original; if type material is lost, noted as the frog illustrated from Lübeck according to Stöck, Günther, and Böhme, 2001, Zool. Abh. Staatl. Mus. Tierkd. Dresden, 51: 259. Type locality: "Lubecae" = Lübeck, Germany. Stated by Pallas, 1777, Naturgesch. Merkwuerd. Thiere, 7 [Pallas' own German translation of Pallas, 1769, Spicilegia Zool., Fasc. 7], to have been originally coined as a synonym of Bufo viridis Laurenti, 1789, although there is no mention of Laurenti's work in the original description.
Rana bufina Müller, 1776, Zool. Danica Prodr. Animal. Dan. Norveg.: 35. Type(s): Not stated or known to exist. Type locality: "Daniae et Norvegia". Synonymy with Bufo viridis by Duméril and Bibron, 1841, Erp. Gen., 8: 682; Günther, 1859 "1858", Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus.: 58. Placed in this synonymy on the basis of geography (DRF).
Bufo bufina — Bonnaterre, 1789, Tab. Encyclop. Method. Trois Reg. Nat., Erp.: 17.
Batrachus fuscus — Rafinesque, 1814, Specchio Sci., 2, 2: 102.
Bufo fuscus Oken, 1816, Lehrb. Naturgesch., 3(2): 208. who placed it in the synonymy of Bufo variabilis and attributed it in error to Gmelin, 1789, Syst. Nat., Ed. 13, 1(3). Unavailable name for nomenclatural purposes according to Opinion 417 ( Anonymous, 1956, Opin. Declar. Internatl. Comm. Zool. Nomencl., 14: 1-42).
Bufo bufonina — Oken, 1816, Lehrb. Naturgesch., 3(2): 208. Incorrect subsequent spelling.
Bufo variabilis — Merrem, 1820, Tent. Syst. Amph.: 180. . Leunis, 1844, Synops. Drei Naturr., Zool., Ed. 1: 147.
Phrynoidis variabilis — Cope, 1862, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 14: 353. who erroneously ascribed the combination to Günther, 1859 "1858", Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus.: 40. Combination proposed as a junior synonym of Bufo viridis Laurenti.
Bufo viridis kermanensis Eiselt and Schmidtler, 1971, Ann. Naturhist. Mus. Wien, 75: 383. Holotype: NHMW 19647.1, by original designation. Type locality: "Kerman-Stadt, Prov. Kerman, Iran". A diploid form; see karyotype of topotypes in Stöck, Frynta, Grosse, Steinlein, and Schmid, 2001, Asiat. Herpetol. Res., 9: 83. See also Borkin, Rosanov, and Litvinchuk, 2001 "2000", Russ. J. Herpetol., 7: 175, and Stöck, Günther, and Böhme, 2001, Zool. Abh. Staatl. Mus. Tierkd. Dresden, 51: 295, who provided an nomenclatural discussion.
Bufo kavirensis Andrén and Nilson, 1979, J. Herpetol., 13: 93. Holotype: NHMG Ba.ex 1276, by original designation; reported as 1278 by Stöck, Frynta, Grosse, Steinlein, and Schmid, 2001, Asiat. Herpetol. Res., 9: 79. Type locality: "Cheshmeh-ye Sefied Ab (34° 21′ N, 52° 14′ E), situated about 10 km southwest of Kuh-e Ghal'e-ye Sard mountains and about 30 km south of Siah Kuh mountains in the southern part of the Kavir Protected Region about 200 km south of Teheran, Iran". Synonymy with Bufo viridis kermanensis by Stöck, Günther, and Böhme, 2001, Zool. Abh. Staatl. Mus. Tierkd. Dresden, 51: 300.
Bufo viridis kavirensis — Stöck, Günther, and Böhme, 2001, Zool. Abh. Staatl. Mus. Tierkd. Dresden, 51: 301.
Bufo variabilis kermanensis — Stöck, Moritz, Hickerson, Frynta, Dujsebayeva, Eremchenko, Macey, Papenfuss, and Wake, 2006, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 41: 667.
Pseudepidalea variabilis — Frost, 2007, Amph. Spec. World Online, vers. 5.0: 365. and Stöck, Moritz, Hickerson, Frynta, Dujsebayeva, Eremchenko, Macey, Papenfuss, and Wake, 2006, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 41: 663-689.
Bufo (Pseudepidalea) viridis kermanensis — Rastegar-Pouyani, Kami, Rajabzadeh, and Shafiei, 2008, Iranian J. Animal Biosystem., 4: 44. Presumably based on misidentifications.
Bufo (Bufotes) variabilis — Dubois and Bour, 2010, Zootaxa, 2447: 25. See comment under Bufotes record.
Bufo (Bufotes) variabilis variabilis — Dubois and Bour, 2010, Zootaxa, 2447: 25. See comment under Bufotes record.
Bufo (Bufotes) variabilis kermanensis — Dubois and Bour, 2010, Zootaxa, 2447: 25. See comment under Bufotes record.
Bufotes variabilis — Frost, 2013, Amph. Spec. World Online, vers. 5.6: . Required change because of non-monophyly of Bufo.
Bufotes variabilis variabilis — Frost, 2013, Amph. Spec. World Online, vers. 5.6: . Required change because of non-monophyly of Bufo.
Bufotes variabilis kermanensis — Frost, 2013, Amph. Spec. World Online, vers. 5.6: . Required change because of non-monophyly of Bufo.
English Names
Varying Toad (Rana variabilis: Lacépède, 1802, Nat. Hist. Ovip. Quadruped. (Kerr transl.): 298; Shaw, 1802, Gen. Zool., 3(1): 153).
Variable Toad (Wood, 1863, Illust. Nat. Hist., 3: 167; Stumpel-Rienks, 1992, Ergänzungsband Handbuch Rept. Amph. Eur., Trivialnamen der Herpetofauna Eur.: 46).
Variable Green Toad (Arekelyan, Danielyan, Corti, Sindaco, and Leviton, 2012, Herpetofauna of Armenia: 40).
Teheran Toad (Bufo kavirensis [no longer recognized]: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 42).
Distribution
Greece, Cyprus, and east through Turkey to Syria and Lebanon (and possibly south through Israel and Jordan through western Saudi Arabia to Yemen, although these populations are current unnassigned to species), thence east through Iraq to Iran, and north-northwest through the Caucasus through Russia to Kazakhstan; isolated population in Denmark, adjacent northern Germany and southern Sweden.
Comment
Stöck, Günther, and Böhme, 2001, Zool. Abh. Staatl. Mus. Tierkd. Dresden, 51: 259, discussed and rejected previous applications of this name to different Asian taxa of their Bufo viridis subgroup. Stöck, Moritz, Hickerson, Frynta, Dujsebayeva, Eremchenko, Macey, Papenfuss, and Wake, 2006, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 41: 663-689, removed the name from the synonymy of Bufo viridis where it had been placed by Bonnaterre, 1789, Tab. Encyclop. Method. Trois Reg. Nat., Erp.: 12 (with Rana schreberianus), by Shaw, 1802, Gen. Zool., 3(1): 153; Daudin, 1802 "An. XI", Hist. Nat. Rain. Gren. Crap., Quarto: 79; Daudin, 1803 "An. XI", Hist. Nat. Gen. Part. Rept., 8: 156; Oken, 1816, Lehrb. Naturgesch., 3(2): 208; Wiegmann, 1832, in Wiegmann and Ruthe (eds.), Handbuch der Zool., Amph.: 202; Eichwald, 1842, Nouv. Mem. Soc. Imp. Nat. Moscou, 7: 159 (under Bufo variabilis); Günther, 1859 "1858", Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus.: 58; Boulenger, 1881 "1880", Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1880:553; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 197. Tosunoglu and Tok, 1997, Turkish J. Zool., 21: 205-211, reported on morphological and osteological variation among southwestern Turkey and northeastern Greece; and Tosunoglu, 1999, Turkish J. Zool., 23: 849-871, reported on morphological, osteological, and serological variation within Turkey (as Bufo viridis). Tosunoglu, 1996, Turkish J. Zool., 20: 103-111, reported on morphometric and serological variation among populations in western and southern Anatolia and also considered the populations in southern Anatolia to be referrable to Bufo viridis arabicus (although this name seems to be properly restricted to populations in southern Arabia). Basoglu and Özeti, 1973, Türkiye Amphibileri: 89-90, provided an account for the Turkish populations (as Bufo viridis). Disi, Modry, Necas, and Rifai, 2001, Amph. Rept. Hashemite Kingdom Jordan: 93-95, provided an account (as Bufo viridis; but likely of this species) for Jordan, with images. Özeti and Yilmaz, 1994, Türkiye Amfibileri: 131-134, provided an account (as Bufo viridis) for Turkish populations. Gislén and Kauri, 1959, Acta Vert., Stockholm, 1: 289-295, reported on Swedish populations (as Bufo viridis). Hraoui-Bloquet, Sadek, Sindaco, and Venchi, 2002, Zool. Middle East, 27: 36, provided definitive records (as Bufo viridis) for Lebanon. Baloutch and Kami, 1995, Amph. Iran: 122-123, 124-135 (as Bufo viridis kermanensis), and 140-144 (as Bufo kavirensis) provided an account for Iran. Özdemir and Kutrup, 2007, Herpetozoa, 20: 3-10, regarded this species (the bulk of their Turkey samples) as conspecific with Bufotes viridis (their Izmir, Turkey, and Ukraine samples) although their results are consistent with a two-species model; for purposes of this catalogue the species are retained but the data presented suggest that the situation between Bufotes variabilis and Bufotes viridis is not clear. Speybroeck, Beukema, and Crochet, 2010, Zootaxa, 2492: 7, rejected recognition of this taxon from "Bufo" viridis pending publication of evidence beyond mtDNA. Arekelyan, Danielyan, Corti, Sindaco, and Leviton, 2012, Herpetofauna of Armenia: 40-42, provided a brief account for Armenia and environs.
External Links
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- 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;
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