Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
Single word	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Anaxyrus californicus (Camp, 1915)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Bufonidae > Genus: Anaxyrus > Species: Anaxyrus californicus

Bufo cognatus californicus Camp, 1915, Univ. California Publ. Zool., 12: 331. Holotype: MVZ 4364, by original designation. Type locality: "Santa Paula, 800 feet altitude, Ventura County, California", USA.

Bufo californicus — Myers, 1930, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 43: 73; Frost and Hillis, 1990, Herpetologica, 46: 87-104; Collins, 1991, Herpetol. Rev., 22: 43; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 11; Gergus, 1998, Herpetologica, 54: 317-325.

Bufo compactilis californicus — Linsdale, 1940, Proc. Am. Acad. Arts Sci., 73: 206.

Bufo woodhousii californicus — Shannon, 1949, Bull. Chicago Acad. Sci., 8: 301.

Bufo microscaphus californicus — Stebbins, 1951, Amph. W. North Am.: 274.

Anaxyrus californicus — Frost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, de Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green, and Wheeler, 2006, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 297: 363.

Bufo (Anaxyrus) californicus — Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 298. See comment under Bufonidae regarding how this arrangement is part of a a system that requires widespread paraphyly.

English Names

Arroyo Toad (Storer, 1925, Univ. California Publ. Zool., 27: 43; Slevin, 1928, Occas. Pap. California Acad. Sci., 16: 107; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 176; Stebbins, 1966, Field Guide W. North Am. Rept. Amph.: 62; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 10; Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 16; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 11; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 7; USFWS; Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 212; Frost, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2008, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 37: 3; Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 7; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 6; Frost, McDiarmid, Mendelson, and Green, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 12; Frost, Lemmon, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 7).

California Toad (Wright and Wright, 1933, Handb. Frogs Toads U.S. Canada: 54; Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 65).

Mexican Arroyo Toad (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 41).

Distribution

West of the deserts in southern California (USA) near Santa Margarita in San Luis Obispo County south into northern Baja California del Norte (Mexico), south to at least as far south as Arroyo San Simón, just south of San Quintín.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Mexico, United States of America, United States of America - California

Comment

In the Bufo americanus group of Blair, 1972, Evol. Genus Bufo: 352; by implication. Resurrected from the synonymy of Bufo microscaphus by Frost and Hillis, 1990, Herpetologica, 46: 87-104, without discussion. Gergus, 1998, Herpetologica, 54: 317-325, presented discussion and evidence for the resurrection, amplified by Gergus, Sullivan, and Malmos, 1997, Ethology, 103: 979-989. See account (as Bufo microscaphus californicus) by Price and Sullivan, 1988, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 415: 1-3. Grismer, 2002, Amph. Rept. Baja California: 66-68, provided an account for the Mexican population. Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 212-213, provided a brief account, figure, and map. Mahrdt and Lovich, 2004, Herpetol. Rev., 35: 280, provided a brief discussion of and localities of Baja California distribution. Sweet and Sullivan, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 396–400, provided a detailed account and map. See photograph, map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status (as Bufo californicus) in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 180. Oliver-López, Woolrich-Piña, and Lemos-Espinal, 2009, Fam. Bufonidae Mex.: 26–29, provided an account for Mexico. Dodd, 2013, Frogs U.S. and Canada, 1: 65–70, provided an account that summarized relevant literature. Elliot, Gerhardt, and Davidson, 2009, Frogs and Toads of N. Am.: 180–181, provided an account, photos, and advertisement call.

External links:

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For access to general information see Wikipedia
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For access to relevant technical literature search Google Scholar
For images search CalPhoto Images and Google Images
To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
For information on distribution, habitat, and conservation see the Map of Life
For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist
For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.