AmphibiaWeb - Oreolalax schmidti
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(Translations may not be accurate.)

Oreolalax schmidti (Liu, 1947)
Webless Toothed Toad
family: Megophryidae
subfamily: Leptobrachiinae
genus: Oreolalax

AmphibiaChina 中国两栖类.

Conservation Status (definitions)
IUCN Red List Status Account Near Threatened (NT)
CITES No CITES Listing
National Status None
Regional Status None

   

 

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

Description

The male is 43 mm and the female is 51 mm. This species has vertical pupils. The tympanum is hidden. Maxillary teeth are developed. The head is smooth, lacking tubercles. The dorsum has spiny tubercles of varying size, which do not form ridges. Hind legs are short, with tibiotarsal articulation extending only to the corner of the mouth. The sides of the toes have very narrow fringe and lack webbing. The dorsum is palm brown or dark palm gray, while the entire belly is flesh-colored. There is a palm black triangular mark on the interorbital space. The male has relatively thin and dense nuptial spines on the first and second fingers as well as a pair of relatively small spiny clusters on the chest.

Tadpoles are 53 mm in body length and 20 mm in head length. The back is greenish black. At the junction of the body and the tail, there is a light yellow mark. The labial tooth row formula is I: 4-4 (or 5-5)/I: 5-5. The center of the upper lip lacks two papillae. Additional papillae with small teeth are present on the corners of the mouth (Fei 1999).

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: China

 

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.
O. schmidti inhabits seven to eight locations in central Sichuan Province, between 100 and 2520 meters above sea level (IUCN 2006)[3767]. The population seems to be small. It lives in mountainous regions within ravines occuring in brushy areas (Fei 1999).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
Breeding season occurs between May and June. Adult toads gather in holes with moist and loose dirt, or beneath roots of plants and the rocks in the stream, or enter the water to breed. The female lays 125 eggs in a ring, sticking them to the underside of submerged rocks, or stringing them together and hanging them from plant roots. Eggs are also laid in the mud by the streamside. The eggs are milky white and 4 mm in diameter. Tadpoles usually inhabit the pools formed by the stream (Fei 1999).

Trends and Threats
Habitat loss is a potential threat (IUCN 2006)[3767].

Possible reasons for amphibian decline

General habitat alteration and loss

References

Fei, L. (1999). Atlas of Amphibians of China. Henan Publishing House of Science and Technology, Zhengzhou.

IUCN, Conservation International, and NatureServe. 2006. Global Amphibian Assessment. www.globalamphibians.org. Accessed on 06 July 2007.



Originally submitted by: Sijie Mao (first posted 2007-05-03)
Edited by: Kellie Whittaker (2007-07-06)

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2007 Oreolalax schmidti: Webless Toothed Toad <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/5309> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Mar 29, 2024.



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Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 29 Mar 2024.

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