EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

The Common But Striking Toad of South Asia

Southeast Asian Toad, Common Indian Toad, Spectacled Toad
(Bufo [Duttaphrynus] melanostictus), Family Bufonidae
Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India

Explanation:  Ranging widely throughout southeast Asia is this large and striking toad, variously called the Southeast Asian Toad, Common Indian Toad, Asian Black Spined Toad,Spectacled Toad, and other names. 

See if you can find all of these characteristics of this species in the photos:
  - prominent cranial ridges
  - prominent ridge on upper lip
  - large, prominent, and oval-shaped parotid glands (raised bumps behind the eyes)
  - large distinct tympanum (flat eardrum just behind the eye), 3/4 the eye's diameter
  - skin heavily tuberculated (wart-like projections) with many black warts
  - two series of large warts down the middle of the back which mostly lacks tubercles
  - smooth crown of head

These toads are mostly nocturnal and feed on insects and other invertebrates.  

Their breeding calls are scratchy and unmusical; here is an example (mp3) I recorded at night at a forest lodge in Thekkady, Kerala, south India (recording © Bruce G. Marcot).  

They are prolific breeders and are neither rare nor threatened.

Information:
     Daniel, J. C. 2002. The book of Indian reptiles and amphibians. Bombay Natural History Society, Oxford University Press, Mumbai, India. 238 pp.