Spea bombifrons (Cope, 1863)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Scaphiopodidae > Genus: Spea > Species: Spea bombifrons

Scaphiopus bombifrons Cope, 1863, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 15: 53. Syntypes: USNM 3704 (Fort Union), 3520 (Platte River), and 3703 (Llano Estacado). USNM 3704 designated lectotype by Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 263. Type locality: "Fort Union, on Missouri River, lat. 48° N"; "On Platte River, 200 miles west of Fort Kearney"; "Llano Estacado Texas". Restricted invalidly to "Fort Union", North Dakota, USA, by Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 59, and validly by lectotype designation by Fouquette and Dubois, 2014.

Spea bombifronsCope, 1866, J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Ser. 2, 6: 81.

Scaphiopus bombifronsBoulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 435.

Scaphiopus hammondii bombifronsCope, 1889, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 34: 306.

Scaphiopus (Spea) bombifronsTanner, 1939, Great Basin Nat., 1: 11; Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 130.

Spea bombifronsFirschein, 1950, Herpetologica, 6: 75; Tanner, 1989, Great Basin Nat., 49: 56; Wiens and Titus, 1991, Herpetologica, 47: 21-28.

English Names

Cope's Spea (Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 24).

Spadefoot of the Western Plains (Dickerson, 1906, The Frog Book: 61).

Central Plains Spadefoot Toad (Smith, 1934, Am. Midl. Nat., 15: 427; Tanner, 1939, Great Basin Nat., 1: 12).

Central Plains Spadefoot (Stebbins, 1951, Amph. W. North Am.: 202; Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 59).

Plains Spadefoot (Strecker, 1915, Baylor Univ. Bull., 18: 54; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 177; Conant, 1975, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am., Ed. 2: 301; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 13; Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 28; Collins, 1997, Herpetol. Circ., 25: 14; Crother, Boundy, Campbell, de Queiroz, Frost, Highton, Iverson, Meylan, Reeder, Seidel, Sites, Taggart, Tilley, and Wake, 2001 "2000", Herpetol. Circ., 29: 16; Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 205; Frost, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2008, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 37: 12; Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 23; Collins and Taggart, 2009, Standard Common Curr. Sci. Names N. Am. Amph. Turtles Rept. Crocodil., ed. 6: 9; Frost, McDiarmid, Mendelson, and Green, 2012, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 39: 22; Frost, Lemmon, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 20).

Plains Spadefoot Toad (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 96).

Distribution

Southern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan (Canada) southward through Montana, North Dakota, and Nebraska and eastern Colorado to southeastern Utah, northeastern and southeastern Arizona, central Missouri, Oklahoma, and western and South Texas (USA) to Chihuahua, and Tamaulipas (Mexico).

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Canada, Mexico, United States of America, United States of America - Arizona, United States of America - Arkansas, United States of America - Colorado, United States of America - Iowa, United States of America - Kansas, United States of America - Missouri, United States of America - Montana, United States of America - Nebraska, United States of America - New Mexico, United States of America - North Dakota, United States of America - Oklahoma, United States of America - South Dakota, United States of America - Texas, United States of America - Utah, United States of America - Wyoming

Comment

Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 205-206, provided a brief account, figure, and map. Lemos-Espinal, 2007, Anf. Rept. Chihuahua Mexico: 63–64, provided an account for Chihuahua, Mexico. Farrar and Hey, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 513–514, and Dodd, 2013, Frogs U.S. and Canada, 2: 777–785, provided extensive accounts that summarized the relevant literature and range. Elliot, Gerhardt, and Davidson, 2009, Frogs and Toads of N. Am.: 266–267, provided an account, photos, and advertisement call. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 250–252, provided an account of larval morphology and biology. Hernandez, Herr, Stevens, Cork, Medina-Nava, Vialpando, Warfel, Fields, Brodie, and Graham, 2019, Check List, 15: 83, provided a record for Ojinaga municipality, north-eastern Chihuahua, Mexico. Bassett, 2023, Reptiles & Amphibians, 30(e18486): 1–18, provided an updated county distribution map for Texas, USA.    

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