Description
Description: Bufo tuberculatus has a total length of approximately 75 mm. The skin is tuberculated with prominent warts. The belly is shagreened with tubercles. The crown has no bony ridges. The snout is short and the interorbital space is broader than the upper eyelid. The tympanum is small, round and distinct. The paratoid glands are large. Toe webbing extends to the end of two basal phalanges, third toe and the first basal phalanx of the fourth toe. There are two roughly equally sized large metatarsal tubercles; the outer being slightly flatter (Zarevskij 1926).

Coloration: In alcohol the dorsum is brown. The flanks and legs are brown yellow with dark spots, and the ventral side is brownish yellow or grey, with or without black spots (Zarevskij 1926).

Variation: The tarsometatarsal articulation reaches the anterior edges of the eye in males and the posterior edge in females (Zarevskij 1926).

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: China

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

B. tuberculatus was first found in Tibet on the Plateau Kham and at Lake Kuku-nor in the Ji-us-shan Mountains. (Zarevskij 1926). Today, it is only found in China, specifically Sichuan and the eastern tip of Xizang Autonomous Region (Fei and Ye 2004).

B. tuberculatus inhabits wetlands, such as pools and marshes in valleys, as well as some agricultural areas (Fei and Ye 2004).

Trends and Threats
B. tuberculatus is threatened by habitat loss and degradation due to farming and agriculture (Fei and Ye 2004).

Possible reasons for amphibian decline

General habitat alteration and loss
Intensified agriculture or grazing

Comments
B. tuberculatus was originally described with some reservation from a few specimens (Zarevskij 1926). At the time of its original description, B. tuberculatus was considered to be allied with B. vulgaris and thought to be a possible a geographic variant of the B. vulgaris (Zarevskij 1926).

References

Fei, Liang and Ye, Changyuan (2004). Bufo tuberculatus. In: IUCN 2011. 2011 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. www.iucnredlist.org. Downloaded on 12 April 2012.

Zarevskij, S.F. (1926). ''Notes on some Batracians from the Palaearctic region.'' Annuaire du Musée Zoologique de l'Académie des Sciences de Leningrad, 26, 74-78.

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2021 Bufo tuberculatus: Qinghai Lake Toad <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/298> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Nov 23, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 23 Nov 2024.

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