Anaxyrus nelsoni (Stejneger, 1893)

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

Bufo boreas nelsoni Stejneger, 1893, N. Am. Fauna, 7: 220. Holotype: USNM 18742, by original designation. Type locality: "Oasis Valley, [Nye County,] Nevada", USA.

Bufo nelsoniSavage, 1959, Am. Philos. Soc. Yr. Bk., 1959: 252; Blair, 1972, Evol. Genus Bufo: 350; Stebbins, 1985, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 2: 70; Altig, McDiarmid, Nichols, and Ustach, 1998, Contemp. Herpetol. Inform. Serv., 1998: 7.

Bufo halophilus nelsoniFrank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 40. Unsubstantiated arrangement.

Anaxyrus nelsoniFrost, 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) nelsoni — Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 306. See comment under Bufonidae regarding how this arrangement is part of a a system that requires widespread paraphyly. 

Common Names

Amargosa Toad (Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 62; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 176; Stebbins, 1966, Field Guide W. North Am. Rept. Amph.: 60; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 10; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 40; 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; Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 209; Frost, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2008, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 37: 4; 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: 13; Frost, Lemmon, McDiarmid, and Mendelson, 2017, in Crother (ed.), Herpetol. Circ., 43: 8).

Distribution

Amargosa River Valley, Nye County, Nevada, USA.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: United States of America, United States of America - Nevada

Endemic: United States of America, United States of America - Nevada

Comment

In the Bufo boreas group of Blair, 1972, Evol. Genus Bufo: 350. Considered by some to be an allopatric subspecies of Anaxyrus boreas. Stebbins, 1985, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 2: 70, recognized this allopatric and morphologically distinct population as a distinct species without discussion but presumably following the unpublished Feder, 1973, M.S. Thesis, Univ. California, Berkeley. Subsequently Altig, McDiarmid, Nichols, and Ustach, 1998, Contemp. Herpetol. Inform. Serv., 1998: 7, also considered it a distinct species, and although no formal discussion of this change was provided, they did note its allopatry as well as fixed differences between larvae and larval habitats. Morphological distinctiveness of the two forms is not controversial. Stebbins, 2003, Field Guide W. Rept. Amph., Ed. 3: 209–210, provided a brief account, figure, and map. Goebel, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 210–211, discussed the geographic variation, recognized nelsoni as a species and noted other populations of nominal boreas that might be distinct species. Goebel, Smith, Murphy, and Morafka, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 427–430, provided a detailed account, map, and conservation status. See photograph, map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status (as Bufo nelsoni) in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 188. Goebel, Ranker, Corn, and Olmstead, 2009, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 50: 209–225, suggested on the basis of a discussion of mtDNA phylogeography of the Anaxyrus boreas group that Anaxyrus canorus is in a group composed southern California Anaxyrus boreas halophilusDodd, 2013, Frogs U.S. and Canada, 1: 132–136, provided an account that summarized relevant literature. Elliot, Gerhardt, and Davidson, 2009, Frogs and Toads of N. Am.: 176–177, provided an account, photos, and advertisement call. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 175–177, provided an account of larval morphology and biology.   

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