AmphibiaChina 中国两栖类.

Description

The male is 68 mm and the female is 70 mm in body length. This species has vertical pupils. The tympanum is hidden. Maxillary teeth are developed. The dorsum is covered with spiny tubercles of varying sizes with black spines. The back legs are relatively large, with the tibiotarsal articulation extending to the eye. Digit tips are rounded. There is a relatively wide fringe on the sides of the toes, and the fourth toe is 1/3 webbed. The dorsum is olive green with striking black spots. No triangular mark is present on the interorbital space. Wide bands are present on the limbs. The ventrum has dark palm piebald markings, and the markings on the throat and ventral surface of limbs are even more obvious. The male has thin and dense nuptial spines on the first and second fingers. The dorsal surface of the forelimbs, the sides of the body, and the lower belly all have spiny clusters. The chest has a pair of extremely large, spiny clusters.

Tadpoles are 65 mm in body length and 23 mm in head length. The tail is palm brown, with thin black dots, and the caudal fin is light in color. The caudal fin extends up to the base of the tail. The labial tooth row formula is I: 4-4/I: 4-4 and a few cases I: 5-5/I: 5-5. Two papillae are lacking from the center of the upper lip (Fei 1999).

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: China

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

O. major occurs in central Sichuan province between 1200 to 2000 meters in elevation. The population is small and found in only a few separate locations, but the actual range may be slightly larger (IUCN 2006)[3767]. It inhabits small ravines in high montane forests (Fei 1999).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
Adults live on land. In April, they are usually found living in rock crevices or under the turf surrounding the stream. During a ten-day period in the middle of May, adult toads enter the stream in mating pairs and breed. Females, when raised indoors, lay eggs stuck to the underside of rocks in tiled sheets. Individual egg diameter is 3.8 mm. The eggs are white (Fei 1999)[617].

Trends and Threats
The major threat is habitat loss, primarily from agriculture, firewood collection and infrastructure development (IUCN 2006).

Possible reasons for amphibian decline

General habitat alteration and loss
Habitat modification from deforestation, or logging related activities

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.

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2007 Oreolalax major: Large Toothed Toad <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/5305> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Apr 16, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 16 Apr 2024.

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