Bufotes surdus (Boulenger, 1891)

Common Names

Pakistan Toad (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 43).

Luristan Toad (Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 41).

Iranian Toad (Khan, 2002, Bull. Chicago Herpetol. Soc., 37: 159).

Iranian Earless Toad (Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, Fahimi, Broomand, Yazdanian, Najafi-Majd, Hosseinian Yousefkani, Rezazadeh, Hosseinzadeh, Nasrabadi, Mashayekhi, Motesharei, Naderi, and Kazemi, 2015, Asian Herpetol. Res., 6: 263). 

Ring-spotted Earless Toad (Bufotes surdus annulatus: Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, Fahimi, Broomand, Yazdanian, Najafi-Majd, Hosseinian Yousefkani, Rezazadeh, Hosseinzadeh, Nasrabadi, Mashayekhi, Motesharei, Naderi, and Kazemi, 2015, Asian Herpetol. Res., 6: 262). 

Earless Persian Melodious Toad (Bufotes surdus: Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, and Niamir, 2023, Zootaxa, 5279: 19). 

Annulated Persian Melodious Toad (Bufotes surda annulata: Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, and Niamir, 2023, Zootaxa, 5279: 19). 

Distribution

Mountains of southern Iran (Bushehr, Fars, Hormozgan, Kerman, and Sistan va Baluchistan provinces) and western and northern Pakistan (western Baluchistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and vicinity of Quetta); record from Iraq requires confirmation; expected in southern Afghanistan.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Iran, Pakistan

Likely/Controversially Present: Afghanistan, Iraq

Comment

In the Bufo viridis group of Inger, 1972, in Blair (ed.), Evol. Genus Bufo: 107, and in the Bufo surdus subgroup of Stöck, Günther, and Böhme, 2001, Zool. Abh. Staatl. Mus. Tierkd. Dresden, 51: 262. See Schmidtler and Schmidtler, 1969, Salamandra, 5: 113–123, and Eiselt and Schmidtler, 1973, Ann. Naturhist. Mus. Wien, 77: 188, for taxonomy, distribution, and ecology. Stöck, Frynta, Grosse, Steinlein, and Schmid, 2001, Asiat. Herpetol. Res., 9: 83, noted that two Bufo viridis complex toads occur in the Zagros Mountains, one being referable to Bufo surdus luristanicus (now Bufotes luristanicus) and the other to Bufo viridis subspecies (now Bufotes surdus) and noted that the ploidy level of the three nominal subspecies of Bufo surdus are unknown. Stöck, Günther, and Böhme, 2001, Zool. Abh. Staatl. Mus. Tierkd. Dresden, 51: 267–269, provided a brief taxonomic account. Baloutch and Kami, 1995, Amph. Iran: 135–137, provided an account (as Bufo surdus) for Iran. Khan, 2006, Amph. Rept. Pakistan: 50–51, provided a brief account for Pakistan. Fakharzadeh, Darvish, Kami, Ghasemzadeh, and Rastegar-Pouyani, 2014, Asian Herpetol. Res., 5: 168–178, reported on karyology of the Bufotes viridis complex in the southern part of Iran, showing karyotypic differences between Bufotes luristanicus, Bufotes surdus, and Bufotes variabilis (now Bufotes sitibundus). Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, Fahimi, Broomand, Yazdanian, Najafi-Majd, Hosseinian Yousefkani, Rezazadeh, Hosseinzadeh, Nasrabadi, Mashayekhi, Motesharei, Naderi, and Kazemi, 2015, Asian Herpetol. Res., 6: 257–290, reported on distribution and conservation status in Iran. Dufresnes, Mazepa, Jablonski, Oliveira, Wenseleers, Shabanov, Auer, Ernst, Koch, Ramírez-Chaves, Mulder, Simonovo, Tiutenko, Kryvokhyzhar, Wennekes, Zinenko, Korshunov, Al-Johany, Peregontsev, Masroor, Betto-Colliard, Denoël, Borkin, Skorinov, Pasynkova, Mazanaeva, Rosanov, Dubey, and Litvinchuk, 2019, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 141: 1–25, summarized the phylogenetics and biogeography of this diploid species. Rais, Ahmed, Sajjad, Akram, Saeed, Hamid, and Abid, 2021, ZooKeys, 1062: 157–175, included this species in an identification key to the amphibian species of Pakistan as well as providing a photograph. Safaei-Mahroo, Ghaffari, and Niamir, 2023, Zootaxa, 5279: 1–112, provided for Iran an identification key including this species (and subspecies), photographs, habitat, conservation threats and Red List recommendation, a review of the literature, as well as dot and modeled distribution maps. Reported fromthe vicinity of Dir and Chitral, northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan by Majid, Azim, Nawaz, and Ud Din, 2023, Asian J. Res. Zool., 6: 56. Hosseinian Yousefkani, Shafiei Bafti, Rezazadeh Mashizi, and Moeinadini, 2024, North-West. J. Zool., Romania, 20(e242501): 85–89, discussed the possible effects of climate change on the range in Iran and provided a current dot map for that country.   

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• 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.