Alytes obstetricans (Laurenti, 1768)

Common Names

Common Midwife Toad (Dufresnes, 2019, Amph. Eur., N. Afr., & Middle East: 30; IUCN, 2022). 

Nurse Frog (Wood, 1863, Illust. Nat. Hist., 3: 162).

Midwife Toad (Cochran, 1961, Living Amph. World: 55; Arnold and Burton, 1978, Field Guide Rept. Amph. Brit. Eur.: 63; Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 50; Stumpel-Rienks, 1992, Ergänzungsband Handbuch Rept. Amph. Eur., Trivialnamen der Herpetofauna Eur.: 43).

Olive Midwife Toad (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 51).

Bell Toad (Hellmich, 1962, Rept. Amph. Eur.: 61).

Distribution

Western Europe from northern Portugal and northern and eastern Spain (excluding Catalonia) throughout France (except for the eastern Pyrenees) and through southern Belgium and extreme southern Netherlands to central and southwestern Germany and northern and western Switzerland; introduced into northern and southern England and onto Menorca in the Balearic Islands, Spain.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Andorra, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland

Introduced: Spain, United Kingdom

Comment

See Arntzen and García-París, 1995, Bijdr. Dierkd., 65: 5–34, for discussion of subspecies. Grossenbacher, 1997, in Gasc et al. (eds.), Atlas Amph. Rept. Eur.: 94–95, discussed relevant literature and distribution. Barbadillo-Escrivá, 1987, Guia INCAFO Anf. Rept. Peninsula Iberica: 131–135, provided an account for the Iberian populations. Nöllert and Nöllert, 1992, Die Amph. Eur.: 249–253, provided a brief account and polygon map. García-París and Martínez-Solano, 2001, Rev. Esp. Herpetol., 15: 99–113, discussed geographic variation in Spain and named a new subspecies. Arnold, 2002, Rept. Amph. Eur., Ed. 2: 64–66, provided a brief account, figure, and map. Márquez and Rosa, 1997, in Pleguezuelos (ed.), Dist. Biogeogr. Anf. Rep. Esp. Portugal: 131–133, provided a brief account, photograph, and detailed map for Iberia. Martínez-Solano, Gonçalves, Arntzen, and García-París, 2004, J. Biogeograph., 31: 610, noted that Alytes obstetricans almogavarii appears to have been distinct for a long period but through gene flow progressively losing this distinction from the other named races of Alytes obstetricans. Márquez and Bosch, 1995, J. Zool. Syst. Evol. Res., 33: 185–192, reported on advertisement call of Alytes obstetricans boscai.  Llorente, Montori, Santos, and Carretero, 1995, Atlas Amf. Rept. Catalunya Andorra: 58–60, provided an account and detailed range map for Catalunya and Andorra. Amat Orriols and Roig Fernàndez, 2003, Butll. Soc. Catalana Herpetol., 16:42–72, discussed and mapped the species in Andorra. Lever, 2003, Naturalized Rept. Amph. World: 139–140, reported on a persistent introduced population near York, England. Van den Broek and Frissen, 2009, in Creemers and van Delft (eds.), Amph. Rept. Nederland: 132–141, provided a detailed account of the species in the Netherlands. Rivera, Escoriza, Maluquer-Margalef, Arribas, and Carranza, 2011, Amf. Rept. Catalunya: 56–59, provided a brief account for northeastern Spain, Andorra, and adjacent France. Mateo, Ayres, and López-Jurado, 2011, Bol. Asoc. Herpetol. Esp., 22: 3, discussed introduced populations on Menorca. Pinya and Carretero, 2011, Acta Herpetol., Firenze, 6: 59–80, discussed the population in the Balearic Islands. Gonçalves, Maia-Carvalho, Sousa-Neves, García-París, Sequeira, Ferrand de Almeida, and Martínez-Solano, 2015, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 93: 363–379, reported on Iberian mtDNA phylogeography. Speybroeck, Beukema, Bok, and Van Der Voort, 2016, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Brit. Eur.: 118–119, provided a brief account and distribution map. Maia-Carvalho, Vale, Sequeira, Ferrand de Almeida, Martínez-Solano, and Gonçalves, 2018, J. Biogeograph., 45: 2146–2158,  reported on mtDNA phylogeography and niche modeling, which provided substantial evidence for diagnosable lineages within the Iberian peninsula in addition to what is now Alytes almogavarii. Allain and Goodman, 2018, Herpetol. Notes, 11: 451–454, reported on the absence of chytrid fungus in an introduced population in Cambridge, England (UK). See Dufresnes, 2019, Amph. Eur., N. Afr., & Middle East: 30, for brief summary of range (see p. 192 for photographs and map of subspecies) and biology as well as a photograph.  Dufresnes and Martínez-Solano, 2020, Amphibia-Reptilia, 41: 105–112, excluded Alytes obstetricans almogavarii as a distinct species in Catalonia, Spain, and suggested that other nominal subspecies required careful reevaluation. Ambu, Martínez-Solano, and Dufresnes, 2024, Alytes, 41: 18–39, discussed the range and delimitation of subspecies.  

External links:

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• For access to general information see Wikipedia
• For additional sources of general information from other websites search Google
• 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.