AmphibiaChina 中国两栖类.

Conservation Status (definitions)

IUCN Red List Status Account Least Concern (LC) CITES No CITES Listing National Status None Regional Status None

Description
The male is 65 mm and the female is 62 mm in body length. The pupil is vertical and the tympanum is hidden. The maxillary teeth are developed. The brownish yellow or greenish yellow dorsum has large tubercles and round, black spots. The hind legs are slender and long. The interorbital region lacks a triangular mark. The tibiotarsal articulation extends to the front corner or center of the eye. The tips of the fingers and toes are rounded. The toes have a relatively weak fringe and have, at the most, only a trace of webbing. The ventrum is flesh-colored and speckled with grayish-brown.

The male has nuptial spines on the first and second finger and clusters of chest spines. The large, thick spines are sparsely scattered.

The milky white eggs are 3-3.5 mm in diameter. The tadpoles are about 73 mm in total body length and 28 mm in head length. The dorsum is brown. The tail is light, grayish yellow, and sometimes has small spots. The base of the tail is darkly colored on both sides. The labial tooth formula is mostly I: 5-5/I: 5-5 or I: 6-6/I: 6-6. The center of the upper lip lacks two papillae. The corner of the mouth has relatively many additional papillae that possess small teeth (Fei 1999).

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: China

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

O. popei is found in southern Gansu, southern Shaanxi, and the central and northeastern Sichuan provinces of China. It lives at 700 to 2000 m above sea level (IUCN 2004), in mountain streams and their surroundings, where plant cover is rich (Fei, 1999)[617].

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
During May and June, adults are sluggish and very difficult to find in the day. At night, they squat by the stream bank or lay submerged in the water with only their heads visible above water. April is the peak spawning period. Tadpoles are concentrated in backwater pools of rapid-flowing streams. If disturbed, they will quickly swim in between the crevices in the rocks (Fei 1999).

Trends and Threats
The range of its distribution is increasing, extending to lower elevations. The major threat to the species is habitat loss and degradation, though the population has not been significantly affected (IUCN, 2004)[3718].

Possible reasons for amphibian decline

General habitat alteration and loss
Intensified agriculture or grazing
Urbanization

References

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

IUCN, Conservation International, and NatureServe. 2004. Global Amphibian Assessment. < www.globalamphibians.org >. Accessed on 28 November 2006.

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2007 Oreolalax popei: Baoxing Toothed Toad <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/5314> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Dec 2, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 2 Dec 2024.

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