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

Bufo verrucosissimus (Pallas, 1814)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Bufonidae > Genus: Bufo > Species: Bufo verrucosissimus

Rana verrucosissimus Pallas, 1814 "1831", Zoograph. Rosso-Asiat. Sist. Omn. Animal.: 15. Type(s): Not stated or known to exist. Type locality: Kaukasus.

Bufo colchicus Eichwald, 1831, Zool. Special.: 167. Types: Not stated or known to exist. Type locality: "in Colchide" (= Cochis at the Black Sea shore of the Caucasus). Synonymy with Bufo bufo sensu lato by Schreiber, 1875, Herpetol. Eur.: 125 (as Bufo vulgaris); Boulenger, 1881 "1880", Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1880: 569; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 303. Synonymy with Bufo verrucosissimus by Kuzmin, 1999, Amph. Former Soviet Union: 239.

Bufo caucasicus — Ménétriés, 1832, Cat. Raisonne Objets Zool. Voy. Caucase et Perse: 74.

Bufo cinereus var. colchica — Eichwald, 1842, Nouv. Mem. Soc. Imp. Nat. Moscou, 7: 160.

Bufo bufo turowi Krasovsky, 1933, Izvestia Vtorogo Severo-Kavkazkogo Pedagogicheskogo Institute, Vladikavkaz, 10: 90–91. Holotype: ZMM, lost according to Dunayev and Orlova, 1994, Russ. J. Herpetol., 1: 63, although 3 paratypes remain in the ZMM. Type locality: Chernorechenskii dordon of Caucasus reserve (Krasnodar region, Russia); near falling of Urushten river into M. Laba. Synonymy by Orlova and Tuniyev, 1989, Byull. Mosk. Obshch. Ispyt. Prirody, 94: 13–24. Distinctiveness of this nominal taxon rejected by Litvinchuk, Borkin, Skorinov, and Rosanov, 2008, Russ. J. Herpetol., 15: 38.

Bufo bufo verrucosissima — Terentjev and Chernov, 1936, Brief Guide Amph. Rept. USSR: 24; Tuniyev and Beregovaya, 1987 "1986", in Anajeva and Borkin (eds.), Sistematika i ekologiia amfibii i reptilii: 136; Tuniyev and Beregovaya, 1987 "1986", in Anajeva and Borkin (eds.), Sistematika i ekologiia amfibii i reptilii: 136.

Bufo verrucosissimus verrucosissimus — Orlova and Tuniyev, 1989, Byull. Mosk. Obshch. Ispyt. Prirody, 94: 15.

Bufo verrucosissimus turowi — Orlova and Tuniyev, 1989, Byull. Mosk. Obshch. Ispyt. Prirody, 94: 16.

Bufo verrucosissimus circassicus Orlova and Tuniyev, 1989, Byull. Mosk. Obshch. Ispyt. Prirody, 94: 20. Holotype: ZMM A-2267, by original designation. Type locality: Stanistsa Krepostnaya, Krasnodar region, Russia, 40 km from Krasnodar. Distinctiveness of this nominal taxon rejected by Litvinchuk, Borkin, Skorinov, and Rosanov, 2008, Russ. J. Herpetol., 15: 38.

Bufo verrucosissimus turovi — Dunayev and Orlova, 1994, Russ. J. Herpetol., 1: 63. Incorrect subsequent spelling.

Bufo verrucosissimus tertyschnikovi Kidov, 2009, Nauchnye Issledov. Zool. Parkakh, 25: 174. Holotype: ZMMU A-4265, by original designation. Type locality: stanitsa Novoekaterinovskaya, Shpakovskiy district, Stavropol Region, Russia.

Bufo (Bufo) verrucosissimus — Dubois and Bour, 2010, Zootaxa, 2447: 24.

Bufo (Bufo) verrucosissimus verrucosissimus — Dubois and Bour, 2010, Zootaxa, 2447: 24.

Bufo (Bufo) verrucosissimus circassicus — Dubois and Bour, 2010, Zootaxa, 2447: 24.

Bufo (Bufo) verrucosissimus turowi — Dubois and Bour, 2010, Zootaxa, 2447: 24.

English Names

Caucasus Toad (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 44).

Caucasian Common Toad (Tuniyev, 1999, Adv. Amph. Res. Former Soviet Union, 3: 51).

Caucasian Toad (Kuzmin, 1999, Amph. Former Soviet Union: 238; Tarkhnishvili and Gokhelashvili, 1999, Adv. Amph. Res. Former Soviet Union, 4: v).

Distribution

Western part of Caucasus Mountains of southern Russia, Georgia, northern Azerbaijan, and extending into northeastern Turkey (Artvin Province); isolated population on Strizhament Mountain and forests in the middle part of of Kuban River Valley from stanitsa Barsukovskaya to stanitsa Uspenskaya, Russia; southern coastal region of Turkey from eastern Antalya Province in isolated populations into western coastal Syria and Lebanon.

Comment

Borkin, 1987, Trudy Zool. Inst. Akad. Nauk SSSR, Leningrad, 158: 47–58, first suggested that Bufo verrucosissimus is a distinct species from Bufo bufo, but he did not make the change. See Orlova and Tuniyev, 1989, Byull. Mosk. Obshch. Ispyt. Prirody, 94: 13–24, for subspecies and taxonomic discussion. See Kuzmin, 1999, Amph. Former Soviet Union: 238–245, who noted that Bufo verrucosissimus verrucosissimus and Bufo verrucosissimus circassicus met in a narrow hybrid zone. Kuzmin, 2013, Amph. Former Soviet Union, Ed. 2: 139–143, provided an account for the former USSR. Litvinchuk, Borkin, Skorinov, and Rosanov, 2008, Russ. J. Herpetol., 15: 19–43, rejected subspecies. Tosunoglu and Taskavak, 2001, Ital. J. Zool., 68: 165–168, considered specimens from Turkey as Bufo bufo verrucosissimus and not distinguishable immunologically from Bufo bufo spinosus. Tuniyev, 1999, Adv. Amph. Res. Former Soviet Union, 3: 51–52, discussed the taxonomic history of this species as well as geographic variation. Baloutch and Kami, 1995, Amph. Iran: 128–130, provided an account (as Bufo bufo verrucosissima) for Iran. See comments under Bufo bufo. Litvinchuk, Borkin, Skorinov, and Rosanov, 2008, Russ. J. Herpetol., 15: 19–43, redelimited that species range by including western Turkish populations formerly referred to Bufo bufo spinosus (now assigned to Bufo bufo). Recuero, Canestrelli, Vörös, Szabó, Poyarkov, Arntzen, Crnobrnja-Isailovic, Kidov, Cogǎlniceanu, Caputo, Nascetti, and Martínez-Solano, 2012, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 62: 71–86, reported on the molecular phylogenetics and phylogeography of the species. Arntzen, Recuero, Canestrelli, and Martínez-Solano, 2013, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 69: 1203–1208, discussed the phylogenetics and species taxonomy of this and near relatives and conclused that Bufo verrucosissimus is a distinct species. See comments under Bufo bufo and Bufo spinosus for additional relevant comments. Nöllert, Grosse, Buschendorf, and Geiger, 2016, Mertensiella, 24: 7–32, summarized and discussed the taxonomic history of this species and its recognition within the Bufo bufo group and provided a range map. On the basis of mtDNA analysis, Jablonski and Sadek, 2019, Herpetozoa, Wien, 32: 255–258, assigned the populations of Syria and Lebanon to this species. See Dufresnes, 2019, Amph. Eur., N. Afr., & Middle East: 75, for brief summary of identifying morphology and biology, a range map (seemingly excluding the northern and southern coasts of Turkey as well as Lebanon and Syria), as well as a photograph. Özdemir, Dursun, Üzüm, Kutrup, and Gül, 2020, Amphibia-Reptilia, 41: 399–411, reported on distribution within Turkey on the basis of mt and nu DNA markers as well as morphology. Older records from southern Azerbaijan and northern Iran now assigned to Bufo eichwaldi. Gasimova, 2021, Biharean Biol., 15: 112–116, discussed the range in Azerbaijan, and provided a dot map. Dursun and Özdemir, 2022, Phyllomedusa, 21: 31–49, reported on morphological variability (external body traits, coloration patterns and skin structure) and age structure in a population from the vicinity of Artvin on the northeastern border of Turkey and Georgia.

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