Anaxyrus terrestris (Bonnaterre, 1789)

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

Rana musica Linnaeus, 1766, Syst. Nat., Ed. 12, 1(1): 354. Types: Not stated or indicated. Type locality: "Surinami". Considered a possible senior synonym by Nieden, 1923, Das Tierreich, 46: 123, although this would require the type locality to be far wrong (DRF). Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 65, corrected the type locality of "Bufo musicus Sonnini and Latreille, 1802" to Charleston, South Carolina, USA. The issue needs to be explored—DRF. Synonymy by Günther, 1859 "1858", Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus.: 63. Synonymy with Bufo lentiginosus by LeConte, 1855, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 7: 430; considered tentative by Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 308.

Buffo clamosus Lacépède, 1788, Hist. Nat. Quadrup. Ovip. Serpens, 16mo ed., 2: 377, 461; Lacépède, 1788, Hist. Nat. Quadrup. Ovip. Serpens, Quarto ed., 1: table after page 618, and referencing account starting on page 608. Substitute name for Rana musica Linnaeus. Rejected as published in a nonbinominal work by Opinion 2104, Anonymous, 2005, Bull. Zool. Nomencl., 62: 55.

Rana terrestris Bonnaterre, 1789, Tab. Encyclop. Method. Trois Reg. Nat., Erp.: 8. Type(s): Frog illustrated as Rana terrestris by Catesby, 1754, Nat. Hist. Carolina Florida Bahama Is.: 69, pl. 69. Type locality: "La Caroline"; restricted to "Charleston, South Carolina", USA, by Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 65. (Catesby's illustration and description do not allow a distinction from Bufo fowleri—DRF.)

Bufo musicus — Bonnaterre, 1789, Tab. Encyclop. Method. Trois Reg. Nat., Erp.: 17. Latreille in Sonnini de Manoncourt and Latreille, 1801 "An. X", Hist. Nat. Rept., 2: 127; Daudin, 1802 "An. XI", Hist. Nat. Rain. Gren. Crap., Quarto: 92.

Bufo rufus Schneider, 1799, Hist. Amph. Nat.: 230-231. Types: By indication including frogs described by Bartram, 1791, Travels N. & S. Carolina Georgia Florida: 275 (English version), 267 (German version cited by Schneider). Type locality: "septentrionalis Americanae". Synonymy by Wright and Wright, 1949, Handb. Frogs Toads U.S. Canada, Ed. 3: 199. A senior homonym of Bufo rufus Garman, 1877 "1876".

Bufo clamosus Schneider, 1799, Hist. Amph. Nat.: 214. Types: Not stated. Type locality: "Surinamo". Synonymy with Rana musica by Daudin, 1802 "An. XI", Hist. Nat. Rain. Gren. Crap., Quarto: 92; Daudin, 1803 "An. XI", Hist. Nat. Gen. Part. Rept., 8: 190. Included tentatively in synonymy by Nieden, 1923, Das Tierreich, 46: 124.

Rana lentiginosa Shaw, 1802, Gen. Zool., 3(1): 173. Types: Including "land frog" illustrated by Catesby, 1754, Nat. Hist. Carolina Florida Bahama Is.: 69, pl. 69. Type locality: "Carolina and Virginia"; restricted to "Charleston, South Carolina", USA, by Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 65. Objective synonym of Rana terrestris Bonnaterre, 1789, by reason of sharing the type.

Bufo erythronotus Holbrook, 1838, N. Am. Herpetol., 3: 99. Types: Including frog figured on pl. 21; not known to still exist. Type locality: "neighborhood of Charleston", South Carolina, USA. Regarded as a nomen dubium by Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 281, and Nieden, 1923, Das Tierreich, 46: 146. Synonymy by Girard, 1854, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 7: 86 (this vehemently rejected by LeConte, 1855, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 7: 430); Adler, 1976, Holbrook’s N. Am. Herpetol.: xxix-xlii.

Bufo musicus — Tschudi, 1838, Classif. Batr.: 88.

Bufo lentiginosus — Holbrook, 1839 "1836", N. Am. Herpetol., Vers. 2, 1: 79; Holbrook, 1842, N. Am. Herpetol., Ed. 2, 5: 7.

Telmatobius lentiginosus — LeConte, 1855, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 7: 426. From Nieden, 1923, Das Tierreich, 46: 125.

Bufo lentiginosus — Günther, 1859 "1858", Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus.: 63.

Bufo lentiginosus var. musicus — Günther, 1859 "1858", Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus.: 63.

Chilophryne lentiginosa — Cope, 1862, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 14: 358.

Incilius lentiginosus — Cope, 1863, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 15: 50.

Bufo lentiginosus var. musicus — Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 309.

Bufo terrestris — Brocchi, 1882, Miss. Scient. Mex. Amer. Centr., Rech. Zool., 3(2, livr. 2): 77. [Probably based on misidentified specimens—DRF].

Bufo lentiginosus pachycephalus Cope, 1889, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 34: 288. Syntypes: USNM 14681 (2 specimens) according to Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 35. Type locality: "Micanopy, [Alachua County,] Fl[orid]a.", USA. Synonymy by Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 35.

Bufo lentiginosus lentiginosus — Cope, 1889, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 34: 289.

Bufo terrestris — Stejneger and Barbour, 1917, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept.: 29.

Anaxyrus terrestris — 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) terrestris — Fouquette and Dubois, 2014, Checklist N.A. Amph. Rept.: 309. See comment under Bufonidae regarding how this arrangement is part of a a system that requires widespread paraphyly. 

Common Names

Carolina Toad (Bufo lentiginosus [no longer recognized]: Shaw, 1802, Gen. Zool., 3(1): 173).

Red-signed Toad (Bufo lentiginosus lentiginosus [no longer recognized]: Yarrow, 1876, List Skeletons and Crania: 39). 

Carolina Toad (Bufo terrestris: Carr, 1940, Univ. Florida Biol. Sci. Ser., 3: 54).

Latreille's Toad (Bufo lentiginosus lentiginosus [no longer recognized]: Yarrow, 1882, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 24: 23).

Southern Toad (Bufo lentinginosus [no longer recognized]: Rhoads, 1895, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 47: 396; Dickerson, 1906, The Frog Book: 89; Brimley, 1907, J. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc., 23: 157).

Southern Toad (Bufo terrestris: Wright and Wright, 1933, Handb. Frogs Toads U.S. Canada: x; Schmidt, 1953, Check List N. Am. Amph. Rept., Ed. 6: 65; Conant, Cagle, Goin, Lowe, Neill, Netting, Schmidt, Shaw, Stebbins, and Bogert, 1956, Copeia, 1956: 176; Conant, 1975, Field Guide Rept. Amph. E. Cent. N. Am., Ed. 2: 307; Collins, Huheey, Knight, and Smith, 1978, Herpetol. Circ., 7: 11; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 43; 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: 8; 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: 9).

Southeastern Toad (Viosca, 1949, Pop. Sci. Bull., Louisiana Acad. Sci., 1: 10).

Distribution

From extreme southeastern Virginia and southeastern Louisiana along the coastal plain (below the Fall Line) to peninsular Florida, USA.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: United States of America, United States of America - Alabama, United States of America - Florida, United States of America - Georgia, United States of America - Louisiana, United States of America - Mississippi, United States of America - North Carolina, United States of America - South Carolina, United States of America - Virginia

Endemic: United States of America

Comment

Reviewed by Blem, 1979, Cat. Am. Amph. Rept., 223: 1–4. In the Bufo americanus group of Blair, 1972, Evol. Genus Bufo: 352. See Weatherby, 1982, PhD Dissert, Auburn Univ. (and Weatherby, 1982, Dissert. Abstr. Internatl., Ser. B, 42: 4711), for discussion of introgressive hybridization with Anaxyrus americanus along the Fall Line; first noted by Blair, 1947, Am. Mus. Novit., 1343: 4. See comment related to Bufo woodhousii velatus under Anaxyrus woodhousii. Gergus, 1993, Herpetol. Rev., 24: 64, reported this species from Sabine County, southwestern Louisiana, but this was later reidentified as Anaxyrus terrestris by Gergus, 1996, Herpetol. Rev., 27: 29. Fontenot, Makowsky, and Chippindale, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 59: 66–80, discussed hybridization with other members of the Anaxyrus americanus group. Jensen, 2005, in Lannoo (ed.), Amph. Declines: 436–438, and Dodd, 2013, Frogs U.S. and Canada, 1: 155–166, provided accounts that summarized relevant literature. Elliot, Gerhardt, and Davidson, 2009, Frogs and Toads of N. Am.: 138–141, provided an account, photos, and advertisement call. Altig and McDiarmid, 2015, Handb. Larval Amph. US and Canada: 184–185, provided an account of larval morphology and biology. See account of biology and life history in southern Florida by Meshaka and Lane, 2015, Herpetol. Conserv. Biol., 10 (Monogr. 5): 26–38. Guyer and Bailey, 2023, Frogs and Toads of Alabama: 68–72, provided a detailed account (including larval morphology) for Alabama, USA.   

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