NEWS103
34
Lexicon
New frogs
Bufo:means“toad”.
Rhinella:means“littlenose”.
major:means“larger”.
granulosus:means“covered in
grains”.
marinus:means“of the sea”.
Duttaphrynus:means“Dutta’sToad”;
Sushil KumarDutta is an important
Indianherpetologist.
melanostictus:means“withblack
dots”.
Leptodactylus:means“small finger”.
fuscus:means“dark”.
fragilis:means“fragile”.
Ceratophrys:means“horned toad”.
cranwelli:dedicationname.
Ptychadena: refers to thedorsal
folds in theseanimals.
Rana:means“frog”.
arvalis:means“of the fields”
Bufo major
is fairly widespread in South
America. It is found in the Chaco of
Argentina,Paraguay,andBolivia,aswell as in
Brazil, inopen stripsof landalong the rivers
Beni,Madeira,Amazon (downtothemouth),
Tapajós, and Xingú, and in the Brazilian
federal state of Amapá; this toad also
purportedly occurs inPeru and at Leticia in
Colombia. The species belongs to the
Bufo
granulosus
group,which iscurrently thought
to contain 12 species.
Bufo major
inhabits
grasslands, is found in association with
human settlements, and is regarded as not
endangered.
Bufomajor
grows to5-8cm long,withmales
remaining somewhat smaller than females.
Theaverageadultsize isaround5.5cm,with
malesbecoming sexuallymatureat 3.6 and
femalesat3.4cm in length.
At spawning time – themales call using a
large throat sac – the speciesmakes use of
temporary waters with overhanging grass,
whichmeans it shouldbe relatively easy to
breed under terrarium conditions. The
importedspecimenshaveso farappearedto
be very amendable tomaintenance, which
takes place in a semi-dry terrarium with
water to bathe in and a substrate that
permits the roads to bury themselves. The
usual insectsareeaten.
Leptodactylus fuscus
fromGuyana.
The similarity to frogsof thegenus
Rana
is amazing.
Leptodactyluscf.fuscus
We have also been able to find out the
identity of the second frog species, though
notwithabsolutecertainty.It isamemberof
the species-rich genus
Leptodactylus
,which
